Abigor - Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)

#FOR FANS OF: Black Metal

For an Austrian black metal band that has been around since the early '90s Abigor's only outstanding aspect is in its failure to impress with this 2018 offering, released as soon as possible into a new year to garner some credence before this band's betters begin breaking solar silences. 'Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)' is an album that aims to capture the chaos of a hellacious descent and torture the listener with an avant-garde style that supplants harmony with horror to diverge from meditation with exhaustive apocalyptic exercises. Instead, and maybe in spite of such an ambition, Abigor accomplishes little more than a parody of itself, as though tethered so tightly to cliched notions of evil and scary ideas that the only way it can seem different from a thousandth viewing of The Exorcist is to provide utterly unlistenable music as introductions to inane horror movie interludes.

That isn't to say that there isn't anything redeemable in 'Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)'. The regal and theatrical synth that closes a series of unusual arrangements in “All Hail Darkness and Evil” introduces an offering that initially intrigues while leaving listeners wondering just how such chaos can be sustained by presenting such an intimidating mix buffered by such truly off putting aspects. A cursory glance at the shrieking and stumbling leads as they are trodden upon by a litany of drum changes does pique some initial curiosity. However, that is only until moments of clean singing and choral outpouring of the song's namesake call out from the winds of controlled chaos crashing into cliffs of cringe, as though the lyrics are being yelled into an oscillating fan as the guitars clamor up blood soaked walls with tormented and grotesque limb movements, their jagged joints having been bent, broken, and repurposed in opposing directions. The album does well to focus on the agony of malformation while drastically abusing the register but finds itself stuck in the most unsophisticated and sophomoric senses of the sentiment that it renders its bewilderment moot to its own emasculated execution.

The weirdness doesn't stop there as “Sword of Silence” awkwardly runs up, down, and around its register like the little feet of spectral children haunting the staircase where their necks were broken. The absurd vocal delivery boots this clumsy song as far from evil territory as its kick can muster and instead jams its big toe into the anus of parody. The guitars attempt to corrupt and distort the flow of a song like “The Duelists” or “Flash of the Blade” with a delivery that inverts any and all chivalric concepts to dishonor past regal Iron Maiden bouts, yet its realization merely comes off as a goof on black metal so easily able to fit into a Spinal Tap sequel's montage as the aging band attempts to stay relevant by hopping from style to style in search of a following. Just because three separate songs can be played at once, it doesn't mean that they combine amicably or even hint at the fruits of jazz. The avant-garde treble movements in this album seem like an excuse to feign intellect while having no prescribed direction before jumping into wholly unsatisfying runs, but at least the rhythm tries to pump some adrenaline despite its dilution. 'Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)' is made even more comedic by the disharmony of “Black Death Sathanas- Our Lord's Arrival” and the groans that accompany it and “The Cold Breath of Satan” into what sounds like a harem full of Fergie replicants all singing “The Star Spangled Banner” while reenacting The Exorcist by masturbating with golden eagle flag toppers in order to shock Dani Filth out of an opera house. By the end of “The Cold Breath of Satan” there is a breakdown where the guitars create a ghastly and intriguing curl that creeps down the spine, finally achieving the sort of eminent evil that draws out images of horror rather than residing only in parody. Sadly it is too little too late after enduring such unpalatable mechanics, made even less enticing by this meandering maelstrom maiming its majesty.

Unfortunately, the redemption found in achieving maleficent notation is in sparse supply as its most apparent instance appears in “Christ's Descent into Hell” where the ensemble careens into the depths with a frolicking tumble, as though chasing a wheel of cheese into a cauldron of shaved steak. Idiotic souls are left screaming as their mouths melt from the delicious lava in spite of knowing exactly what luncheon grotesquerie they were lunging into. An opening run in “None Before Him” provides paltry satisfaction before the guitars are allowed to run riot and the ensemble embraces the boredom brought by Dimmu Borgir. As much as Abigor promises the unusual and pads it with a slight bit of interesting, 'Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)' is an album that tries too hard to fail laterally. This is an album that prefers to crash and burn so terribly that Don McLean may noodle through a song about it, that Tommy Lee would love to neglect it at a pool party, and that has strung itself up by its own umbilical cord rather than experience the pain of seeing its own misshapen visage burned by the light of day. This is an album that surely did not make it far past the drawing board and somehow is burning itself into my ears, like ice picks tipped with sulfuric acid, just to make way for thoughts as banal as this album's ideas. As hard as this band attempts to be ugly, it simply sounds crass, phony, and annoying. As hard as this band tries to be avant-garde, it merely comes across as unlistenable dreck, but at least it's not as bad as Chepang, Nic, Mutilated Messiah, or many of the other unutterable failures that populate a realm hell-bent on reveling in mediocrity in order to feign depth in its pathetic poetry. This album needs to be heard like I need another höllen my zwang. (Five_Nails)

(Avantgarde Music - 2018)
Score: 40

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/h-llenzwang-chronicles-of-perdition

Drug Honkey - Cloak of Skies

#FOR FANS OF: Psychedelic Death/Doom

Every evening cars pull up and park in front of my house, yet no one is here to visit. Instead, as the average societal drone prepares for a relaxing night, the twilight shift begins for the human excrement with which I have the misfortune of sharing a fence. Itchy, sniffling, pale-faced denizens of the darkest corners of this town descend upon a hapless sleepy street searching for their choice chemicals. Once in a while, in a fit of desperation through intense withdrawal, the neighbor's yard is invaded with screaming and the sounds of windows being pounded all around the property. This is but a taste of my front row seat to a reality that this band reflects as Drug Honkey directs its delirium through distortion, capturing the dragon and watching it decay in a pit of its own delusion.

'Cloak of Skies' aims to tackle the slow, undesirable, and unending delirium of falling into a drug addled demise. Where Black Sabbath overdosed on heroin in “Hand of Doom”, Drug Honkey has found an even more potent opiate concoction to nod off on. Laced with fentanyl, the band slings junk that is best left to an intimate album setting because “Pool of Failure” would make for a boring live show. Still, many may want to get their fix from the source, and “Outlet of Hatred” visits that skeevy squalid slum, like spending a night in a roach motel bordering an industrial park. Train horns blow by in frequent intervals, the interminable pounding of a headboard against a shared wall keeps generic paintings applauding the local prostitution economy, and the stench of pickup truck exhaust invades the gaps and cracks of the curtained window, intermixing with old cigarette smoke to remind you just how thin a building can be built while remaining within the engineering specifications of the municipality. The only stability one may have throughout Drug Honkey's journey is a knowledge that the possibilities are endless when it comes to scrounging up the cash for a fresh fix. Evenings are spent dining on mouthfuls of dick and ransacking humble homes to hock other peoples' possessions for far lower than an appreciable resale value. Yet with every fresh syringe of vein-pumping toxicity, “The Oblivion of an Opiate Nod” falls farther away as death creeps closer.

'Cloak of Skies' is a journey into damnation by way of self-destruction. The album is slow and dingy with growling vocals, psychedelic moments, and loud gravely guitar rhythms while leads scream in and out of each song in a kaleidoscope of synapses showering in endorphins. There is such a large swath of atmosphere and so much open delirious space that this band would probably not work well in a live setting, but on a recording comes across as addled and hopeless as hitting rock bottom, curled in a corner of a strange basement, and fading away into nothingness. So tie one off and join the epidemic, but don't expect to come back from this binge because Drug Honkey promises no NARCAN. (Five_Nails)

(Transcending Obscurity Records - 2017)
Score: 80

https://drughonkey.bandcamp.com/album/cloak-of-skies-atmospheric-death-doom-metal

Grimtone - Memento Mori

#FOR FANS OF: Black Metal

Just in time for the first snows of the season, two man Swedish black metal project, Grimtone, released its first full-length album, 'Memento Mori', with all the raging winds and flying ice expected to prove itself as a raw and fitting addition to the plethora of newcomers honoring the roots of the style.

Blasting out of the gate with some shameless Immortal worship in “Souls Reborn in Hate”, it is clear enough that Grimtone promises to make up for its lacking inventiveness with aggression. Sure, Michael Lang has an aptitude for his instruments and plenty of stamina to hold down his blast beats, however it seems that the music as a whole would benefit from more input and outside ideas to push the instrumentation past its satisfactory simplicity into a more interesting dimension. While Linus Carlstedt provides vocals, it seems very likely that Lang is the main contributor to the band with control over every instrument, leading to a bottleneck of creativity. There are some good tremolo hooks throughout this album like in “The Blood of the Dead” and “Armageddon (Rise from Hell)”. Sadly, they end up reeled in by a constant background black metal blast. Between sparse cymbal breaks and blast beating, there is not much more going on in the lower register throughout the majority of 'Memento Mori', just an endless grim tumble of flat and atonal aggression that blends itself into a vanilla paste thick enough to paint a face and fill an average mold with the bare minimum.

I keep wondering, where is the shriek, where is the fear, where is the evil that I so desire between shrill and nearly inescapable riffs that sound as fearsome as they are destruction in the ears? Yet this band has nothing but a pathetic personae to push rather than a true sense of horror to isolate and explore. If you blast this album, you hear the same as you do when listening to it on a lower volume. There is nothing but a base system of banality driving this music that, while keeping a drum stamina, doesn't grab a church by the steeple and feed it to Satan's fire. If this band wanted to portray the oldschool, it simply kindergartens it and that is what makes this album so utterly inane and commercial an attempt.

Most disappointing is that the title track ends up sounding more like an 8-bit Bowser battle than a bombastic black metal offering and the guitars, held deeply in the background, sound exactly like the guitars in each verse of “Fields of Pale Limbs”. This production is perplexing. Either the band doesn't understand how the limitations of lo-fi recording equipment contributed to the releases of early black metal and its sound, namely the necessity for personality and definition through its minimalism, or the band just doesn't care because this album was clearly recorded on nice equipment and then mixed to sound awful, doing the music a disservice and simply coming off as contrived. Throughout six main songs, there is an average of one riff at best per song, not counting incessant repeating ideas that end up hammered into dullness by a damnable one-trick drum kit.

The biggest change in drumming comes in “Witch's Lair” where the percussion is allowed to build from a slow and sharp cymbal and snare combination to steadily rise in intensity. Where the majority of this album was hammering to the kvlt, Michael Lang does stretch out a bit on this track to help distract from the vocals and let a cymbal tap the tip of the tremolo. Bass and echo come in waves, falling with the guitars in a very literal and linear sound that yearns to take a next step into some sort of counterpoint. Grimtone is almost there in “Witch's Lair” but, to its own detriment, is unwilling to embark on that journey as they band plays it as safe as possible. Black metal is not a safe sort of music and I think Grimtone forgot that fact while trying to appeal to that same audience.

“Empress of Black Light” lines a riff right back up with the canon created by the title track, rounding out the majority of this album with its quick sawing that has become an all-too-familiar and unearned encore throughout these thirty-one minutes. In spite of a nice second riff that swings past the lead in a far more pleasing fashion, Grimtone fails to impress with too little too late. Like the actual style of memento mori, images taken of the dead during the days when photography was prohibitively expensive and most families' only pictures of their loved ones would be of corpses propped up after death for the occasion of a funeral, Grimtone may as well have left the old school to its own era and tried to do something slightly new. Sadly, 'Memento Mori' is another average and unnecessary underground attempt at homage without personality. Stiffness and mysterious minimalism do not always equate to grimness. Such a flat and unimpressive album merely shows this pair's own atonality and trite creativity in a realm so accustomed to innovation. Grimtone is likely to dwell among the likes of Framferd and Runespell. In a hall lined with identical statues and where the haunting echoes of 'who?. . . who?' glide past rafters upon which no owls care to perch. (Five_Nails)

(Self - 2017)
Score: 40

https://grimtone.bandcamp.com/releases

Norse - The Divine Light Of A New Sun

#FOR FANS OF: Black Metal, Deathspell Omega, Xasthur

Few bands are able to completely capture a truly unnerving and dangerous aesthetic, let alone hold to it long enough to conjure ghastly paranoid entities twixt the snares. Norse creates such destruction in the ears of this listener that it sneakily unhinges the screams of past pains carried by the now deceased that continue to haunt the house in which I still reside.

Norse is an example of an Australian band on an entirely separate level. This down under duo explores the truly disturbing in the raw and brutal black veins of Xasthur and Benighted in Sodom with a twist that calls forth the unique dissonance experienced in Demilich's 'Nespithe'. Through fantastic production that accentuates a deep bombastic bass center, Norse employs the raunchy four-stomp Immolation rhythm in a grim and primal, at times tribal, atmosphere of disorientation. Discordant squelching guitar notes touch the timbres of your ears and tumble into the lowest parts of the register, feeling as though being hooked through the cheek and dragged to Hell by your ripping face. “Supreme Vertical Ascent” immediately contorts its elements of evil into a machinery of punishment that never lets go as grainy melody in the second riff yearns to embrace its beauteous notation, but is left displaced to dissonance. This deprivation occurs frequently through the album, as when the captivating and unusual opening to “Drowned By Hope” spaghettifies the mind in a singularity's pull to its avant-garde evacuation in the center of a fresh star.

“Telum Vitae” swims through its bass groove as though Lamb of God donned corpse paint to create black metal with hardcore chest-pounding tenacity. Through the immense build comes a theatrical take on breakdown beating while the bass rejoinder in the song's second movement creates an unmistakable measure of satisfaction to compliment its insane release of aggression. The vocals crackle through the center, bass curves upward in a hulking groan, and guitars and drums drown in a swamp of blending set to endlessly intoxicate an audience with such shameless sin.

'The Divine Light of a New Sun' flows and ebbs like a rusty swing set at an abandoned school, irradiated with malice and haunted by terror. Despite its dissonant core, this calamitous black metal assault combines well with its powerful low end to sound like a full and heady extreme metal release, as displayed in the end of the title track, the Gothenburg aesthetic opening of “Synapses Spun As Silk”, and in the proximity that “Arriving in Peace, Pregnant with War” holds to grindcore. Norse takes an approach that refuses to confine itself to one genre. Instead, the music naturally and organically mutates as it searches for the boundaries of its own intensity and technicality.

It's been a long time since I have heard such a legitimately unnerving and disturbing album, something that makes a spine quiver and adrenaline pump due to such a genuinely heinous sound that diminishes and drives its deprivation so destructively downward. It truly is a pleasure to feel such evil enter your ears and undulate under your skin, an intoxicating venom that exudes omnipotence. Norse has created quite the concoction in 'The Divine Light of a New Sun' and is sure to crush you in its immense and inescapable gravity. (Five_Nails)

(Transcending Obscurity Records - 2017)
Score: 85

https://norsemetal.bandcamp.com/album/the-divine-light-of-a-new-sun-dissonant-black-metal

Drudkh/Paysage d'Hiver - Somewhere Sadness Wanders/Schnee IV

#FOR FANS OF: Atmospheric Black

Shadows lengthen earlier each day as changing leaves and gradually falling temperatures accompany the arrival of another Drudkh split to sate an autumnal appetite. This year the Kharkiv crew has chosen to collaborate with Paysage d'Hiver, a Swiss bedroom black metal band whose French name translates to 'Winter Landscape'. As Drudkh continues to discover new open spaces ensconced within the confines of dense forests, Paysage d'Hiver is swept up in the gusts of a dark and stormy night as Tobias Möckl, under the pseudonym Wintherr, fruitlessly searches for shelter in the relentless cavalcade of chaos.

Drudkh's contributions in “All Shades of Silence” and “The Night Walks Towards Her Throne” bring the stellar consistency expected from this Ukrainian black metal mainstay. Through Drudkh's twenty-one minutes in the spotlight stand tireless thicket sentries at the edge of the woods while waves of blaring melodies purify the lands within of the faint of heart. After wandering overgrown trails with intricate and labyrinthine harmonies, “All Shades of Silence” finds solace in a clandestine grotto watching night fall as the stars wink over the trickles of little waterfalls. These quiet introspective moments remind one of melancholic memories while the little escape becomes a prison of past regrets. As day returns the air becomes exasperated and ominous while the whirling harmonies quit their quiet getaway, refreshed and ready for another ambling adventure.

“The Night Walks Towards Her Throne” has the classic intensely hammering Drudkh tone reminiscent of those days when 'Forgotten Legends' and 'Autumn Aurora' rolled their lengthy repetitious rounds behind quick guitar slices and scattered shrill sound waves against garage walls. The professional production quality greatly enhances the impact of this song with prominent double bass kicking and enough distance between the distorted guitars to escape the black metal blend and soar across the gorgeous vista created by its second progression. A wail of guitars is joined by blast beating as it clambers into a whirl of drawn out vocals in a gorgeous turn of the eternal treble wheel. This reverberating harmony encapsulates the infusion of reverential folk tones into the sharp soundscape of black metal in a gorgeous cycle that longs to last an aeon. Drudkh is a band that never fails to impress and throughout these hypnotizing songs comes the foreboding knuckle-cracking chill that signals another adieu to warming sun and green grass.

Swelling in a breathy fashion bookended by quiet acoustic guitars and heaving winds, Paysage d'Hiver summons a blizzard of intensity where waves of distortion ebb and flow as the foreground is held up by sharp snaps of a snare center. Wailing lead guitar melodiously howls at the confining rhythm guitar and vocals give a gravely scream behind the higher leads in “Schnee IV”. Typifying the dreary, exhausting, and forlorn hope of an inescapable structure, Wintherr seeks inspiration from the likes of Darkthrone and Burzum to conjure this tempest. The guitars are winds of chaos with whispers of melody hidden in the maelstrom through seven minutes of a single structure before a riff change from the lead guitar attempts to scream its way out of the whirl of degradation. The crisp hail of mechanical drumming sets a stoic standard and inundates the air with flurries of momentary fills between hypnotic passages, compounding on each other and engulfing the landscape in this ferocious blizzard.

Drudkh's delicate autumnal passages beautifully flow into the harsh scarcity of Wintherr's savage storm creating a complimentary split that delightfully accompanies the atmosphere of this most precious time of year. With Drudkh's prolific discography and Paysage d'Hiver's experience, this professional presentation is keen to highlight the drastic changes endured throughout these unforgiving seasons. (Five_ Nails)

(Season of Mist - 2017)
Score: 80

https://drudkh.bandcamp.com/album/somewhere-sadness-wanders

Runespell - Unhallowed Blood Oath

#FOR FANS OF: Black/Doom, Agalloch

Hearkening to those halcyon days of black metal's second wave an economical black and white cover captures a solitary figure with a corpse painted face standing twixt the exposed rootage of ancient and shadowy timbers. Nightwolf's neck cranes and his visage upturns towards the sky as though studying the intricate emblem blazoned in the canopy. Axes, spears, and a sword peek out from behind an ornately embellished shield as starkly slashing typeface accentuates the moniker its pointed protrusions conceal. Runespell is somewhere in this vast visual valance of lo-fi ridiculousness intermixed with individual enterprise. This accumulation of stylo swipes and copious colorless cuts completes the busy banner below as a howling wolf, backed by a distant mountain range, presides over the top. With such an eye for detail and a scandalous show of more is more this presentation can easily come to calamity. However intense and overt, the appearance of this cover comes together as astutely brimming with reference and reverence while the sound behind the image strays into acres of Agalloch aesthetic despite imprisonment in a dusty and dingy Australian bush.

'Unhallowed Blood Oath' has a strong start with “Oblivion Winds”, a rather tepid middle section, and comes back with a vengeance in “White Death's Wings” and “All Thrones Perish”. The beginning and end play very closely to Agalloch's atmosphere and attitude, so much so that they have trouble taking flight to glimpse the extent of their own realms of conquest and instead dance through sure and charted jet streams. “Oblivion Winds” creates a gale of diminishing tremolos that weep over wide landscapes and tear through trees. This opus of an opening then slows down with a piano riff in the background, urging the ivories to wail in synchronicity with guitars before rising into a fiddler's melody.

“Bloodlust & Vengeance” sounds like the soundtrack to a cavalry charge across a windswept plain as shining sabres fell fleeing fodder. On a high sea of grass lowlanders fertilize the soil as claymores sever arms from torsos and carve regiments in twain. The under produced echoing vocals dart out from behind a wall of tremolo that should be far more satisfying to the black metal tuned ear. However authenticity is lacking. The high strung bloodlust contorts into a vengeance that fails to hit the expected blistering, almost atonal, shrieking apex so desired after a downpour of harmonies freezes into the tendrils of a river of blood. These apogees find their thunder in a double bass gallop but the snare and cymbal are immobile sentinels in spite of every attempt made by these guitar gusts to breathe some life into their low-end compliment. For a song as ambitiously titled as “Bloodlust & Vengeance” there is no payoff, no cathartic release, there is only a feel of frustrated fortissississimo.

This is where Nightwolf sticks to what is safe rather than goes out on a limb to personalize his music. The presentation of this album has all the trappings of an individual black metaller. Yet the music follows the flock so stolidly that it cannot even envision the extent of the paddock in which it is confined. “As Old Gates Unfurl” is a replicated experiment in atmosphere with a mixture of acoustic distance and that nearly atonal drawn-out chanting Norse vocal that Agalloch so readily employed throughout its storied career. This momentary peace aims the celestial gaze at you before “Heaven In Blood” makes you digest some Venom. Still, this deepest, darkest descent doesn't do more than try to sound evil with a chorus that indistinctly growls as it stumbles into the most mainstream notions of black metal, employing the stereotype rather than playing the style.

A noticeable change in production occurs when a far lower fidelity announces the shrill guitar harmony of “White Death's Wings”. Each instrument calls to the other from distant peaks atop their howling riffs, aligning the intricate notation through celestial curvature in Celtic concert. Here is where beautality arrives and the album reaches its memorable moments. The fury from before was tepid yet this new concentration of will and power finally brings the personality necessary to propel this album from its most average doldrums.

With its lead guitars trumpeting atop a dim and flickering background of dreary harmony “All Thrones Perish” brings long echoing vocal harmonies to fill the middle range as small guitar licks play in folksy candor to the frantic cadence of black metal's hurry. The combination grows with the addition of another guitar, flourishing with a tertiary tangle that wraps the growing vine to passionately penetrate the earth. These first three minutes harness the emotionally exhausting atmosphere of “As Embers Dress the Sky” and with a name like “All Thrones Perish” this rhythm seems to longingly call out in reverence to the now defunct Agalloch with its bass and percussion combination employed in unmistakable mimicry.

Though Nightwolf finds moments to eloquently call forth the fervent and expressive themes expected in a modern black metal release while simultaneously strolling through his own fiefdom of the Australian bush, the majority of this album is forgettable and bland. 'Unhallowed Blood Oath' plays as though a love letter written by a fan who dipped his toe into the black lake rather than as the result of a black metal musician bringing himself into the fold. With sycophantic and reverential tones that fail to personalize the space, despite a keen knowledge of each ingredient necessary for success, the proximity to Agalloch and gushing worship outweigh the aptitude for exploration needed to make this album anything more than an appetizer before venturing back into the likes of 'Ashes Against the Grain'. Befitting of the album's title, this blood oath need not be honored as another average Australian aimlessly appreciates the already accomplished and aggravatingly avoids anything atypical. (Five_Nails)

(Iron Bonehead Productions - 2017)
Score: 65

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/runespell-unhallowed-blood-oath

Billy Boy in Poison - Invoker

#FOR FANS OF: Death Metal

“Well, well, well, well. If it isn't fat, stinking billygoat Billy-Boy in poison.”

A Danish band clearly enamored with 'A Clockwork Orange' (a book written in just three weeks and forever immortalized on film by Stanley Kubrick), this group of droogs so seamlessly blends into the black-clad gauge-eared breakdown-beaten buffoonery of metal's most corporeal and corporate dystopia that it could be easily mistaken for insincerity. However, the talent that kicks off this quintet's sophomore album shows an artsy attempt at furthering a solid grip on making metalcore just before it drops the ball in this release's mundane midsection.

“Absolution” and “Iron Grip” have gigantic sounds to them. Building and toppling fortresses as they rise to atmospheric pinnacles through the hollow echoes of muddy guitars and crumbling from blasting volleys in mere seconds, a crashing cascade that brings “Iron Grip” to satisfying release. Billy Boy in Poison leads with strength summoning its best efforts but blows its load too early. Prominent and melodic leads endure a laborious pace to heighten the impact of the rhythms and grooves, like in the funerary march of “Morcar” where diminishing notes hang by a thread before being swallowed by the next measure. There is a noticeable proficiency in the songwriting through the first half of this album.

“Come to get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly thou.”

“A Walk on Broken Bones” is where this album loses its grip on the ball it had so delicately handled. Noisy and energetic, this song is set to be the sort of aggressive Lamb of God foray into modest metalcore mimicry but the guitars paint a swath of muddy meandering measures over such a by-the-numbers template that it becomes a mess of aggression without any compelling sounds to make it memorable. “A Walk on Broken Bones” is just the first leg of an uninspired journey with few landmarks worthy of a momentary glance but only due to the dullness of the landscape before finally reaching the riches of “Black Gold”.

The mediocrity of these b-sides shows how boundless break beats bonded to the baseless belief that they're building br00tality bores this death metal regular, no matter how much it may make the average pit ninja dangle from a plastic coated orifice flapping off the side of a core clone's cranium. “Exodus” starts smoothly enough with pinches of harmony and humming bass before becoming an average and jerky stomper. Merely a single moment betrays a glimmer of hope as the guitars gloriously glide through their grain to meet a tearing blast beat before being yanked into yet another spastic time change. Eventually “Exodus” bleeds into “Glaciers” and “Glaciers” abruptly crashes into “Mara”. Though “Glaciers” brings a preferable aggression, muddy and repetitive rhythms boast few engaging moments despite slight artistic slivers accentuating the atmosphere of the album. Through a very vocal oriented mix with an abundance of break beating that attempts to sound gigantic and imposing, the grooving deathcore throughout 'Invoker' loses its way in this dangerous territory as the droogs receive a self-inflicted punishment for this tepid traipse into br00tality's badlands.

In typical deathcore fashion, “Black Gold” is Billy Boy in Poison's big finish with an anthemic melody that falls into aggressive verses before returning to its beginning in each chorus. The final return is especially complimented by a robust snare and kick combination. As can be heard in the end of All Shall Perish's “The Last Relapse” or Abigail Williams' “The Departure”, “Black Gold” formulaically fades with a simple sappy melody to further legitimize the artistry and power experienced throughout the endless breakdown centered meat of this album. It's difficult not to be a bit jaded when it comes to listening to a paint-by-numbers deathcore release like 'Invoker'. Like a plethora of bands of Billy Boy in Poison's ilk, this album had a couple of good ideas in it but in no way has enough material to justify a forty-five minute full-length. Unfortunately with Billy Boy in Poison, the band's sophomore album contains merely an EP's worth of ingredients that were stretched too far. (Five_Nails)

(Prime - 2017)
Score: 50

https://billyboyinpoison.bandcamp.com/album/invoker

Decatur - Badder Than Brooklyn

#FOR FANS OF: Heavy/Groove/Thrash Metal

With a logo reminiscent of what adorns the average Marvel comic book shining in the night's sky above an otherwise empty street, save for the buckets of blood soaking the pavement, Decatur attempts to cover lot of ground in this first album of rough-and-tumble heavy metal. Though “Internal War” immediately shows off an aggressive North American metal band, this Toronto trio brings a bit more breadth to its sound than only thrashing guitars and grooving rhythms. Somewhere along the line this band got on a Judas Priest kick and couldn't shake it off when it came time to record a debut album.

“Into the Night” has a great guitar sound to it that takes note of the prickly pace of “Stained Class” era Judas Priest and ups its ante with a fuller thrashing string compliment before it becomes a drawn out verse-chorus singalong. The lyrics, especially in the 'we believe' chorus hit with the sharp cheddar that will make you cringe enough to turn the volume down though the guitars will make you want those decibels to rise. Some bands just have a tougher time getting away with their cringy moments, but what comes after this song deeply cuts into one's personal sense of shame and drags it out for all the world to see. The guiding riff in “Vegas Girl” has a bit of Pantera's “Walk” flair while playing a fist-pumping NWOBHM sort of song that would give Jezz Torrent and Love Fist a run for their money. In spite of its catchiness, “Vegas Girl” is a song that I'll continuously skip due to the cringe of the vocal delivery where every line comes out as though the vocalist is just yelling 'one, two, three, four, five' over and over. This weird wedgie of down-home heavy metal nestled between two thick sets of bouncing grooves greatly changes the pace and mood of this album as the title track drips with more melty mozzarella in its by-the-numbers hard rock delivery. It's funny how the songs that Decatur chooses to lead with are so out of the general element of this album. Of ten tracks, three are of this oldschool ilk and though they're not as satisfying as the majority of the album, they do stick out like the sore thumbs they are.

Though the band broadens its approach in those seemingly ill-fitting songs, most of this album takes influence from modern groove, metalcore, and thrash sounds in songs like “Worst Enemy”, “Bottled Inside”, “Abaddon”, and “Shatterproof” which kick with a taste of Lamb of God while searching for the right amount of aggression to shake out their grooves. A lick in “Abbadon” will remind you just how ready the twin axe treatment is to split its force and strike from separate directions while rumbling rhythms with small cymbal clinks throughout “Shatterproof” tone back the aggression of “Blood of the Scribe” as they continuously maintain the kit's vicious punch. Even though the break-beat throughout most of “Bottled Inside” comes across as par for the course, the soloing at the end gives the song its memorable moment.

That is a common aspect of 'Badder Than Brooklyn'. The album, for the most part, isn't all that much to write home about but each song has a moment, a standout few seconds that will perk your ears up and make the time worth your while. In “Tear You” it comes at the beginning with a gripping riff before falling to the atonality of anger while “Worst Enemy” ramps up a rolling momentum. Most proficiently done is the instrumental closer, “Internal War pt. 2” where there is not a second wasted or note out of place. When it comes down to it, the vocals just aren't helping to hold down this band's sound throughout the majority of this album with drawn-out choruses that repeat clichéd phrases like 'cross my heart' in a voice that is singing but gravely and not very aggressive but still trying to grab you and rattle you around. The vocals and songwriting definitely do need work and some of the great ideas throughout this album can effectively be expanded on while eschewing some of the less original surplusage.

Decatur's 'Badder Than Brooklyn' is an unusual and somewhat disjointed album on your first listen. Mixing your average heavy metal sound with a thick layer of cheese in the title track, and sprinkling that throughout the first part of the album, stands in stark contrast to the more aggressive groove metal that makes up the majority of this release. In spite of these disparate and disorienting moments, the overall ability of these musicians and their self-awareness to put a spotlight on the hints of greatness they reach in each song that proficiently pull this album together without leaving the listener too far out in the cold. There is plenty of room for improvement but there is also an unmistakable potential here that, with some introspection, can result in a great sophomore album. For now, 'Badder than Brooklyn' stands as a solid beginning. (Five_Nails)

(Self - 2017)
Score: 70

https://decaturmetal.bandcamp.com/releases

Crushing Axes - Trail of Blood

#FOR FANS OF: Death/Thrash, Slayer

Crushing Axes is no stranger to death metal. Having released thirteen full-length albums in nine years, along with a pair of EPs, Alexandre Rodrigues shows an incredible zeal and tenacity for his prolific project. Though 'Trail of Blood' is this reviewer's first foray into such a sizable discography, the primitive pounding death metal from this Brazilian bedroom band doesn't fail to intrigue. Compared to the first glances at a slow Slayer inspired opening to his other 2017 full-length, 'Back to North', in “Invasion” or to the even more lethargic and timid start of the 2014 album 'Undead Warrior', 'Trail of Blood' sets itself up to be a far more pummeling and intense addition to this ambitious catalogue.

Rodrigues starts off this latest album with an old thrash axiom, when in doubt fill it with more notes. This principle makes “God Says Hate” absolutely beat the listener bloody with cleanly audible and palpable drumming that serves as a barbarous compliment to the quintessentially thrashing guitars. Ripping and tearing from riffing to speedy transitions and drowning the distortion in snapping wrists of quick picks, the notation of “South American Prison” and “Below Salt” truly lend credence to the band's name.

'Trail of Blood' can be summed up in its very crunchy riffs, like chewing a salad of sea glass. As is common in this more thrash influenced classic death metal approach, basic beating gives way to long drawn out groovy riffing without sacrificing the vengeful intensity of the instruments. Solos are used sparingly through the opening half of this album. Rodrigues instead chooses to thicken the atmosphere with lots of sawing guitars that chug and shake to the thrash standard while embracing the brutal atonality in the death metal standard. This comes across well when “Trial by Combat” opens an untouched vein with a traditional guitar before a shrill sound like one of the many screaming goats gracing YouTube. The song then falls into the slow and savage waltz that ends up flowing through to its follow-up, “Burn Everyone”, where small elaborations on higher-pitched tones help to claw out of the maw. These songs show how cohesive and consistent Crushing Axes is throughout this album with a smooth flow and great pacing. At the same time, the majority of this release can get a bit too consistent to really step into greatness as 'Trail of Blood' runs at too steady a step. The album effortlessly flows, but rarely deviates from its prescribed pace.

The three big stand-outs on this album feature guest vocalists and a fierce energy. First comes “In the Path of Death” which features Jairo, whose growling vocals compliment the more Morbid Angel style of this song with drawn out and regurgitating harsh yells that are not too far from those of Rodrigues in the majority of the release. The title track's guest, Glauber, brings a vocal of faster thrashy yelling, some distancing and echoing effects, and sounds straight out of a metalcore band, especially in comparison to Luiz in “Commotio Cordis”. These songs easily stand out on paper and more so when compared to the very basic ending of this album. Through the energy of “In the Path of Death”, the unusual distortion in the solo in “Trail of Blood”, and the commotion of “Commotio Cordis”, there is a good flavor of fresh personalities in these three songs that help the flow of this album and get the music to take a step out of its single-minded confines. The deviation from form works very well to personalize each song and serve as a tight knot to tie together an album which, for the most part, hangs as a straight and unbroken rope.

'Trail of Blood' is a solid album from a clearly experienced and dedicated musician. However, this album suffers from a common complacency found in many bedroom bands and may be the result of Rodrigues demanding too much of himself. Through fifteen releases in less than a decade, Crushing Axes' mastermind shows himself as a tenacious and talented trooper who stands firm without getting discouraged. Still, with simplicity as a stylistic choice, this album does get flat, as in the deliveries of “Deathcult” and “The Spoilers of War”. Though the cradle rocks well enough, the plain path of this all-too-clean production breaks from the bassier proclivities desired in down and dirty death metal. Rodrigues has a great handle on his instruments but he seems to be picking at an ever emptying pit. Though he may not have found his biggest nugget of gold yet, Alexandre Rodrigues is undeterred. Yet he might shine best in continued collaboration where he can show his strengths while tapping further veins of potential through uniting talents. (Five_Nails)

(Self - 2017)
Score: 70

https://crushingaxes.bandcamp.com/album/trail-of-blood

Mason - Impervious

#FOR FANS OF: Thrash/Groove Metal, Testament

Mason from Melbourne, Australia is exactly what I would describe as modern thrash. Through a mix of the expected big crunchy guitars, ripping riffs reminiscent of major thrash mainstays, and embracing more of the modern groove style popularized by the 2000s American metalcore scene, this band absolutely captures the energy and ethos of thrash metal while balancing its aggressive and nuanced approaches that give headbangers plenty to think about while wrecking their necks.

Playing to a chorus reminiscent of Testament's “Over the Wall”, the opening riff of “Burn” starts you off on the short fuse of the '80s thrash and dash style before giving way to a long series of solos in its second progression. This movement from restless tearing guitars into a lumbering metal behemoth's groove shows a versatility that harnesses the texture of its more modernized approach while still shredding into the meat of oldschool thrash metal malice as it wraps you in the harmonic helix created by noodly classical notes.

This album shows a sophisticated evolution of its thrash elements into metalcore and groove movements throughout complementary songs that, without compromising intensity, push past the primitive plateaus found in the seminal works of one of heavy metal's most aggressive and vibrant eras. The album cover expands on the content's vivid and lively sound with a blend of impressive colors washing a swath of impressionism across the canvas as the muted mixture captures a moment of a hulking beast of burden bearing severed heads, sloshing skull-fulls water along a dangerous path. Like the band plays on the knife's edge between the modern metal style and the classic thrash conventions, the horse is spurred on by youth towards the brink of brutality before bucking back against that notion lest it lose its direction.

Throughout 'Impervious' there is a lot of rolling from a very robust drum kit that accentuates energetic guitars swirling spirals of chaos, loosening up a neck to spin throughout “Tears of Tragedy” as treble rises into the most utterly glorious soloing section in these thirty-six minutes. “Cross this Path” takes the role of your traditional '80s style thrash offering with the saw of guitars swinging across the top of the rhythms before expanding into an almost Gothenberg scope of harmonies with the fun energy of All That Remains engulfing the listener in a twist of treble that is as beautiful as its extending tendrils are deadly. Alongside the aggression of the blasting opening to “The Afterlife”, and the Skeletonwitch sort of anthemic sound with a Slayer vocal delivery to “Sacrificed”, these songs create a quality core composite of strong b-side singles while the title track takes center stage. Running around its melodic main riff well through its chorus, this title track experiments with a more mobile groove and a 21st Century American metalcore sound that has me thinking of a more mechanical and harder hitting The Autumn Offering. Bits of All that Remains in the song with that metalcore style of anthemic and harmoniously uplifting tenacity reach out to caress your inner headbanger and show a strong spirited songwriting strength as Mason hammers home its prestige piece.

Throughout 'Impervious' is a consistently quality delivery that shows the aptitude of this modern thrash troupe in fashioning a sturdy bridge between the old and the new, between headbanging aggression and gorgeous soloing, and between crunchy groove and compelling metalcore. Mason is truly a force to be reckoned with as it keeps the fires of thrash alive with bellows from the bowls of hell. (Five_Nails)

(Self - 2017)
Score: 85

https://www.facebook.com/masonofficialband/

Saiva - Markerna Bortom

#FOR FANS OF: Folk Metal

Another one-man band from Sweden, Saiva is the product of Andreas Petterson, a once corpse painted black metal warrior who has appeared with numerous underground acts before settling into the more folk influenced periphery since hanging up his screaming face. With Saiva there is as much to be expected as there is in Grift. Saiva's sound is music to thresh wheat to, to stare at trees to, and to hang outlanders from those trees to as much as Grift's music is to sulk, question, contemplate, and commit suicide to.

Throughout Saiva's 'Markerna Bortom' is a general air of ancient and timeless chanting to quiet and toned-back minimalist guitars picking their way around softly rippling cycles. Distant cries can be heard from Grift's Erik Gärdefors in “Där Vindar Vänder” among other collaborations that round out an album enhanced by the contributions of Panopticon's Austin Lunn and Juha Marklund of Tervahäät. These additions surely do embrace that idea of 'solidarity in solitude' through an isolating experience between the shakes of the strings while the imposing ensemble can conjure the anxiety of being stalked by phantom fears behind every tree.

“Varsel I Vildmark” has harmonizing calls that leap with a bark as the guitars wrap around themselves through the dreamlike end of the song, predicating the yelping accents throughout the vocal harmony in “Nordan”. Most distinctive however, is how “Nordmarkens Älvar” and “Där Vindar Vänder” create an endless flowing sound with their calming guitars. While the river calmly bubbles along in “Nordmarkens Älvar”, the flood of a full compliment inundates the second progression in “Där Vindar Vänder” as chanting, a second guitar, and pounding drums submerge stone and shoreline with icy intensity.

The quivering lilting in the guitars makes for a quintessentially black metal offering of twisted harmonies as a second set of strings stands hairs on end and sends shivers down your spine. Even when taken down to its most basic tones and without the raging resonance expected in voluminous reverberations, the tone of this album retains its foreboding atmosphere. This is especially found in the second movement of “Nordan” where the gritty riffing growls behind an ever suffocating wall of imposing treble sounds to create a claustrophobic atmosphere before the wave breaks. Though the aggression of 'Markerna Bortom' is understated and far less apparent than the average screaming black metal band, the mesmerizing atmosphere and steadily growing sound with all its guitar additions, chants, martial drumming, and chest-clenching uproar finds its own delirious place in the mysticism of black metal's disorienting wilderness. (Five_Nails)

(Nordvis Produktion - 2017)
Score: 75

https://saiva.bandcamp.com/album/markerna-bortom

Lustre - Still Innocence

#FOR FANS OF: Black Ambient

Sometimes it's a nice change of pace to listen to something airy, inoffensive, and so unusually out of place that it inhabits a world of its own. Nachzeit's one-man offering of a pretty atmosphere through 'Still Innocence' is just that sort of float of a feather down a chasm of sunlight that embraces the serenity of its delicate descent into the shadows.

Through lovely and ethereal waves of ambient noise with drums hidden behind quiet keyboard synth in “Dreaded Still”, a calming meditative track paints happy clouds of humming atmospheric fuzz across a full and entrancing soundscape, open to a calm and sweet whistling tune as it softly steps its way through the winds. Sometimes a sound can easily become the theme to a season and I can already sense this song becoming a major contender for what my mental jukebox will spin in this autumn's retrospect.

There is truly somber and melancholic beauty in each song. Guitars are held so far back in the mix that they sound like distant pulsing waves of rainfall, ushered by heaves of wind to hammer a puddle before allowing the noise to give way to steady and sometimes interminable drips. Even more distant, whispers and drowning screams can barely be heard as they gently breathe between squalls of grain-falls. This album is sappy and weepy, nostalgic and mesmerizing, lonely and longing, and all encapsulated in simply beautiful sound that, sadly, overstays its welcome.

While “Dreaded Still” can catch the ear, the compositional style shows its standardization quickly enough by the second track, “Nestled Within”. Lustre shows its quality production and maintains a momentum that can go easily ignored as background music in “Let Go Like Leaves of Fall”. Still, this music is entrancing while simultaneously unimposing and a calming accouterment to a solitary walk or to rainy day spent immersed in a book. While the opening of the album with “Dreaded Still” is energetic enough to be reimagined as a techno song, by the time you get to “Reverence Road”, the soundscape has turned into elevator music playing in a 1980s shopping mall at the height of Madonna's fame. I like the moments that remind me of immersive role-playing video games, like the Final Fantasy style opening to “Without End”, but at the end of the day this album of sappy sounds runs its course long before the music ends. Lustre holds its atmospheres hostage when they could have been allowed to run free through the listener's memory before becoming an annoyance. Instead these lingering songs refuse to leave, losing their luster to the apathy of a listener that is left begging for the album to end rather than begging for more.

As the music seems to offer more than it needed in respect to song length, the droning melodies and repetitious drum beats become a halfhearted white noise. I was hoping that maybe there would be some explanation of the songs, some literature to expound upon what may be in Nachzeit's head while composing this music, but there are only snippets of scant stanzas to bring reason to this repetition. The stanzas for “Dreaded Still” and “Nestled Within” aren't very alluring. The wordplay to the stanza for “Reverence Road” is nice enough, but again this is such maddeningly unintrusive substance that it has me asking why the rest of this album even exists after the opening track.

I'm left scratching my head as to just what any of this album was supposed to accomplish and how this lines up with any characteristics of black metal other than a nearly inaudible hiss of what may be guitars in the background. I don't hate this music but I've quickly become bored of it. I'm left a little confused as to where to place this album, but the worst that I could ever react to this is with ambivalence. Lustre's 'Still Innocence' is a meditation tape or white noise sleep album, it's the speck of dust illuminated by a ray of sunshine that passes unnoticed until that certain hour of the afternoon, and that's just fine enough when you're not hoping for much more. (Five_Nails)

(Nordvis Produktion - 2017)

Score: 65

https://lustre.bandcamp.com/album/still-innocence

Paganizer - Land of Weeping Souls

#FOR FANS OF: Oldschool Death Metal, Dismember, Grave

With an oldschool Swedish death metal sound and the experience to provide it, Paganizer brings the bassy and unhinged pummel reminiscent of bands like Entombed, Grave, and Dismember. Cavernous vocals, short thrashing guitar licks, prominent and cascading leads, and immense primitive snare rattling and bass stomping create the energy of a brisk naked scramble down the 'Left Hand Path' on the third day of a methamphetamine binge as the spiders start eating you flesh away.

The soloing at the end of “Dehumanized” is face-meltingly electric as it tears through a raucous rhythm that thrashes as much as it stomps to the slamming rhythm of a tribal drum. A bloody-knuckled fist of frustrated energy caged between the guitars, snare snaps against riffs in the hopes of escaping its strict confinement. Yet in the oldschool fashion of chaining the snare while allowing the bass pedals to take off running, there is no relent to the walls of harmonizing treble as guitars create staggering walls that no broken nail may scrape its way up. Screaming with such speed, the great catchy melodic opening riff to “Forlorn Dreams” is beaten into step by an intense uptick in snare hammering. The harmonious lead riff winds its way through this slowest and longest song on the album to create a cavernous backdrop for shrill soloing to complete the performance.

When it comes to this bass-heavy production, the lead guitar is very loud in the mix. With riffs that amble through dank corridors that Demilich so comprehensively explored, very samey movements in songs like “Soulless Feeding Machine” and “Prey to Death” become a downright annoyance when you realize that, despite all the personality of the early tracks, the rest of the catalogue is having a tough search for interesting ideas. Sadly, this is one of those albums that has a great start but can't sustain that freshness and momentum throughout a full-length. That is the unfortunate downfall of “Land of the Weeping Souls”. Sure, souls weep through every shade of sadness and despair in this album as the title track chokes out small solos and rhythms rail against their cage in thunderous cadences, but the momentum becomes a forced slog in the second half of this half hour. While there are moments in “The Bured Undead” with its rising solo, the rhythm is far less catchy than in “Forlorn Dreams” and, alongside “Soulless Feeding Machine”, sounds like a halfhearted attempt to grasp the power that “Forlorn Dreams” had hooked the listener in. Though the back catalogue of this album has its merits there aren't many truly momentous moments that propelled a song into its full tilt to strongly follow the forceful openers.

Paganizer's 'Land of the Weeping Souls' is a solid album from an obviously talented and experienced band. Its initial blast surely creates a destructive shock-wave. However, the wave tapers off, and though the back catalogue of Paganizer's “Land of the Weeping Souls” can still sate a Swedish death metal blood-thirst, it doesn't incredibly shake its way down to the fault lines that could move enough Earth to make one's suffering truly legendary. (Five_Nails)

(Transcending Obscurity Records - 2017)
Score: 70

https://paganizer.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-weeping-souls-death-metal-2

Grift - Arvet

#FOR FANS OF: Depressive Black Metal

Eric Gärdefors' anguished and depressive black metal project, Grift, continues in its smooth, intimate, and captivating approach with another desperate cry into the untamed wilderness. The lonely house that Grift built, residing twixt the trees of a desolate forest and lying unlit under an ashen sky, is the prison of an isolated mind that dwells on the inherent insignificance of existence while awaiting inevitable demise.

Folksy acoustic guitars with pattering traditional drums, wailing cries both high and low, and a dive into the fury of fleeting black metal riffs characterize “Flyktfast”, Den Stora Tystnaden”, and “Utdöingsbygd” as genuine and significant standard metal affairs among a catalogue of introspective and disillusioned lyrics. After two minutes of a desolate and creeping intro, where the serenity of a quiet resonating cymbal tolling between creaks of wood is interrupted by distant cries, a barking dog, and a drop into Grift's most energetic song on this album, “Glömskans Jrtecken” harnesses its lonesome atmosphere in a tumble of emotions. The relentlessly kicking rhythm buffets long, drawn out guitars that longingly ring like organs, yearning to recapture a long lost mental state, stuck in a fleeting moment that is impossible to hold onto after conjuring a shadow if itself in retrospect. Lyrically, the song describes the somber revelation that memories merely malform over time. Through an easily-convinced naivete, minds that sought signs of the 'urkraft' or primordial force that has awakened mankind's cognition were simply imagining, never witnessing the spirits manifesting themselves in the greatness that so deluded such a once-impressionable youth.

The avant-garde moments of this release make up the majority of “Morgon På Stromshölm”, with its four minutes of birdsong, cymbal tinks, and a grating violin taking over the final minute of the track. “Nattyxne” embraces its desolation to drag the guitars through begrudgingly beautiful tones while assuring the listener that, despite all the pleasing sounds and picturesque landscapes it conjures, the tone of this album remains firmly entrenched in its dispirited disposition. Emotionally impactful, Grift's 'Arvet' is an unheard cry for help as the production fills the air with the moisture of falling tears and mesmerizing melancholic measures. The understated intensity of this album, lurking in the shadows before pouncing in “Utdöingsbygd”, creates a reversed rhythm crushing its own heart and wallowing in its self-absorbed misery while maintaining a firm grip on the desolate black metal structure that culminates in the swing of tremolos and blasts. (Five_Nails)

(Nordvis Prod - 2017)
Score: 75

https://nordvis.bandcamp.com/album/arvet

Divine Element - Thaurachs of Borsu

#FOR FANS OF: Death/Black Epic, Amon Amarth, Primordial

To style Divine Element as an Amon Amarth clone would be an uneducated attempt to compliment two exceptional musicians. Playing a powerful and fiery form of melodic death/black metal, this Hellenic pair plays closely to Amon Amarth's nearly unrivaled glory while finding its own glory in a unique realm of kingdoms and chaos. A concept album that serves as a companion piece to founding member Ayloss' upcoming novel of the same name, 'Thaurachs of Borsu' is the tale of one warrior's destiny wrapped in the fate of his warlike nation. Together they take on the challenge of overcoming an immensely powerful usurpation of their ancestral homeland while the protagonist confronts cosmic questions and tests of his loyalties in this unforgiving world.

Combining Amon Amarth power with Primordial atmosphere in the opening instrumental, “A Realignment With Destiny” and using moments of narration that make even The Meads of Asphodel seem completely cheese-less, Divine Element explores its broad concepts through a mixture of folk sound and chest-beating battle riffs in this invigorating half hour. Bookended by interludes and featuring an instrumental in the midpoint of this album, the meat of this release is five unique tracks that explore the human spirit, proclivities for tribalism and notions of power, and embark on a journey of blood and battle that rages across the sea to brutally conquer a capitol. Incredibly uplifting tremolo riffs ride galloping drums to create a purposeful and compelling atmosphere in the money track “On the Trail of Betrayal”, like a vicious woodland hunt chasing a cunning foe. Where Amon Amarth faced a desperate and solemn ride against time in “Hermod's Ride To Hel”, Divine Element charges down the winding path slaughtering all in its way with the satisfaction that the cavalry can overcome any foes in the dense growth. The lyrics call for an examination of one's loyalties and just what hill is worth holding, questioning what influences and justifications one has in order to fight against or to accept a societal norm. Wrestling with whether to pursue a path that destroys others over “kin, kingdom, caste, and belief” or to “aim towards the noble idea, the Wholeness” of a unification strengthened by all its parts rather than a victor stood atop the ashes of his foes, Divine Element chooses to fight for the light and cleanse obscurity. Enlisting the drumming of Hans Grossman, the blaster in Necrophagist's “Epitaph”, “Call of the Blade” brings that cleansing fury to life, causing carnage and calamity on the road to reconquer the lost lands.

Unlike the failed experiment, Canada's Deity that came out nearly a week after this full-length, this other little known band featuring an established death metal drummer is a stellar example of immersive storytelling through aggressive music. 'Thaurachs of Borsu' is a well-rounded concept album with some incredible moments that is worth a listen from Amon Amarth, death metal, and black metal fans alike. Reaching for its destiny, traveling “Beyond the Sea”, and vanquishing as it marches, Divine Element builds an intricate world around this album and on the page to present an engaging narrative. (Five_Nails)

(I,Voidhanger - 2017)
Score: 80

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/thaurachs-of-borsu

Pathology - S/t

#FOR FANS OF: Brutal Death

With a rhythm like a spray of bullets and thunder of artillery erupting up and down a battle line, Pathology runs amok leaving a wake of carnage that disassembles anything in its path. This band conjures images of rolling fortresses misshapen by arrays of weaponry in a seemingly random assortment of calibers and missile pods made for massacre rather than as an figure to appreciate. Made all the more imposing by their terrifying silhouettes stretching across blood-soaked battlegrounds, a regiment of these harbingers prognosticates the twilight of civilization. Unlike many inappreciable weapons systems of yore, shredded in scrap yards and burned on roadsides, there is a meticulous method to Pathology's misshapen steeds as they make their mad rush to scorch the earth through an album that transitions from a bewildering first blast to an exhaustive meditation on technique.

Eleven years old and on its ninth full-length album, this California outfit is an experienced mainstay of the brutal death metal realm and continues to plunge itself into the undulating pits of flesh that dot this world of sickness and gore. Immediately to the point, each song involves the slamming percussive patterns symbolic of the sub-genre as the ensemble forms an ever-morphing ball of aggression where strings attempt to breach the viscous surface, beating themselves to exhaustion and squeezed back into their confines by the fleshy crush. In “Litany” a thrashing surge enhances the guitars' muddy bounce. Behind it is an enticing lick here and there that takes center stage with higher pitch that wraps the guitars in harmony far above the abyssal bedlam. These aberrations stand far out against a series of slams and stomps that shows a serious focus on technique and packs each song to the brim with undulating variations on its restless rhythms. After an abrupt solo and a massive breakdown, the end of “Servitors” features a bit of Suffocation flair through a momentary guitar trill, just barely noticeable in the background of the romp and stomp, while “Shudder” showcases the intricacies of this down-tuned guitar dance alongside a magnetic vocal delivery that creates a disturbing accompaniment to an already obtuse album.

Pathology makes some very serious, very focused, ultra-brutal death metal in the veins of Texas' Devourment, Russia's Katalepsy, and Scotland's Cerebral Bore. Disgusting and indecipherable gutturals maintain the forefront, guitars fling themselves into pits of filth and arise with momentary screams while barely getting a chance to elaborate in merely two solos in this album, one in “Servitors” and another in “Vermillion”. Drumming consistently drives each song towards a fresh examination of the overall structure with astute variations, gravity blasts, and brutal bass kicking galore. Pathology is down and dirty while still remaining professional. This ninth studio album is a series of brutal death metal mainstays done very well with enough personal touch to keep the music fresh and versatile as it plunges deeper into realms of revulsion. (Five_Nails)

(Comatose Music - 2017)
Score: 70

https://comatosemusic.bandcamp.com/album/pathology

ÆRA - Of Forsworn Vows

#FOR FANS OF: Black, Emperor, Satyricon

"An Affirmation of Forsworn Vows" astutely builds its intensity to blasting height with a grating guitar texture that becomes a template for devastation later in the song. In regular black metal fashion, the tireless strings fill the air with choking clouds of sawdust as ÆRA extracts beautiful moments out of the ever-shredding grain beneath each riffing stroke. ÆRA 's rough and tumble black metal sound makes for good battle music when it erupts in fury before diving deeper into entangling its lead riff around a trestle table celebrating victory.

With plenty of atmospheric synth, a jagged juxtaposition of dragging tempo and raging temperament, and a hypnotically repetitive style that consistently forces itself onward to the next great change, this band concisely and distinctively demonstrates its handle of some of black metal's most recognizable aspects throughout 'Of Forsworn Vows'. Plenty of cymbal crashes and tinks cut through the wailing walls of guitar in the most intense moments of “Litany of Iron I: Ancient Graves of the Fallen – II: Rekindled Fires” before entering into the hall of a Satyricon style riff. ÆRA lyrically touches on notions of living and dying by the sword while surrounded by fallen brethren, ancestral rites to lands that face relentless savage sabotage, and metaphysical slaughters across mythical worlds that mimic diabolical discord on Earth. Though the band's name may translate to honor in Icelandic, the extensive violence described in “Die Wulvsara (Am Ende der Zeit)” shows that little honor will result from Ragnarok, but with how tremendous the battle is promised to be there is no place that anyone would rather be. There is elegance in this closing track as the percussion hammers home the wailing lead riff and its sobbing rhythm rejoinder while a synth backdrop uplifts the impact of the charge through Emperor's echos. After nearly eight minutes of a slow-moving build to the battle, the pieces are all set to take each other in a fierce exchange that leaves no sword unbloodied and no winner atop the mountain of carnage.

ÆRA has a first start that frequently hits at moments of Satyricon and Drudkh through this hypnotizing EP. With a good handle on their black metal and a raw production that affirms this proud and open-ended atmosphere, it will be an interesting evolution to hear how this group climbs further up the stairs of speed and momentum to materialize a monumental sound in the treble-tinned ears of black metal fans. (Five_Nails)

(ATMF - 2017)
Score: 75

https://atmfsssdtp.bandcamp.com/album/of-forsworn-vows