Nyseius – De Divinatione Daemonum‏ (2015)

by David Rosales on June 11, 2015

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While not profoundly insulting as most bands pretending to play black metal, Nyseius just plays very boring black metal. Now, this isn’t just an emotional remark, I have concrete reasons linked to the music’s construction to back it up and say what it is relevant. Nyseius is also rooted in the modern misunderstanding of black metal by its outer traits. Thinking that black metal consists in ad nauseam repetition of samey riffs to create atmosphere. And they get stuck in this word, atmosphere, as if it were music itself and not an effect of certain music. And thus they attempt to create that thing itself, mistaking it for music. This is the abysmal trap in which all metal that willingly identifies itself with that word falls into.

Arnold Schoenberg said that variation itself did not need justification, it was a merit on its own. He also said that this variation needed to be harnessed and guided by an equally powerful and balancing restraint and coherence. But in discussing De Divinatione Daemonum the first aspect becomes the most pertinent since this music lacks variation. Bent on forcing the creation and sustaining of this atmosphere, this featureless mass, this wall of same-length notes only seldom breathes in order to continue aimlessly towards oblivion.

The last factor that drives this into a wreck is that they have infected black metal with the superficial craving to be extreme. This is what drives them to this dissonance, and an ignorant use of dissonance at that. Dissonance not as a tool of tonal music, not even a dissonant musical language, it is just the use of single dissonant chords for their own sake, for the momentary and twisted satisfaction that it can bring to the human ear. Exemplifying yet another dead end of metal caused by a superficial appreciation of the classics or of music in general, Nyseius will gradually fade into oblivion as purposelessly as the notes they put together into atmosphere, not music.

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Névoa – The Absence of Void (2015)

by David Rosales on June 11, 2015

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The phrase The Absence of Void (or in other words “not nothing”) basically means the same as “something”. If we indulge in its mystic inclination, the phrase is not about pointing out that there is or there isn’t something but emphasizing the importance of having something. It is almost a description of the emotionally needy and it describes the music in this album very well.

As is common with all the uppity and profound hipster black metallers, they care little for the right tone and color in the genre and will paint it with brushes from indie rock and any other happy-dumby expression. This would not matter if they went all the way and just made indie rock, but it is the discrepancy between black metal and their post-metal penchant for happy and light passages that furthermore are only indulgences in the moments that do not build on the song that show this music for what it is: emotional neediness that just wants something, that just wants to not have nothing.

Although some, including the band, will probably try to claim to be related to metal, this is nothing but post-metal dressed as black metal. Once you get to the middle of the album the song “Alma” will completely dispel any doubts (on a separate note, this completely NOT metal song is probably the best song in the album, also the only honest one). So we shall judge it “on its own grounds” as some superficialists would say. Post-metal fails even on its own grounds. Music that only stagnates in an “atmospheric” moment and then introduces another stasis. It’s a different kind of musical masturbation from technical wanking. This is emotional wanking with sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLqXwj73f5I

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Gestalt – Infinite Regress (2015)

by David Rosales on June 11, 2015

More black metal from the people who do not understand black metal. This is in the now popular style of pseudo black metal that sounds like war metal trying to be progressive. This lot probably new about black metal through the profound music of Michael’s Pink Frothy AIDS. Incoherent as it is flat, Gestalt identifies itself as modern by the insistence on arranging awkward juxtapositions and superimposed elements that do not match in the least. Keyboards that were not there before jump into the fore with no warning only to disappear and never return again in the song. Maniatic blast beats that underscore nothing except the fact that they are trying to play intense music followed by macho man riffs, only to slide into quiet endings or bridges that seem placed there because they simply could not think of anything else to put there.

Even the average metalhead will know to stay away from this circus motley outfit pretending to ironically catch a pulp fantasy sort of occult imagery backed by equally uncompromising profoundness — or so their kind say in this sort of empty words. As the late bitterman (where art thou? we could use you) would say: Vapid. Avoid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBkgL498GPA

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Temple Of Gnosis – Mysterivm Magnvm (2015)

by David Rosales on June 11, 2015

Temple Of Gnosis - Mysterivm Magnvm

Gods of metal, please liberate us from the blithe of samey industrial and doom metal from atmospheric-minded twats! Save us from the ignorance that plagues metal artists and fandom alike! Only then can these empty husks that resemble metal be driven out and seen for what they are. This album is one more kind of subversive tendency under empty pretentiousness that affects those with a penchant for the occult and a short-sighted vision for composition.

Mysterium Magnum consists of four songs of basically the same thing. At points it approaches the industrial sound of Beherit on Electric Doom Synthesis but without the distinct ideas and development. Temple of Gnosis’ music is rather a snapshot of that industrial metal with some minimalist melodies played in subtle keyboard sounds along shadowed vocals that lend to the darkness of the atmosphere. And that’s it. You take that and basically play that moment again and again in slightly different ways. The songs even have more or less the same length, and all equally fail at developing or show any variety. Perhaps the length was the measure stick to decide when to stop the songs.

Temple of Gnosis show us with Mysterium Magnum just how gullible both the industry and the average fan of metal can be. Or how blind and undiscerning the industry takes the metalhead to be. To be honest, this probably deserved since most metalheads show they cannot see past “the riff” or “the melody” in the case of the more mainstream-minded. The average metalhead is still a pop music fan, he sees music as separate moments and what each of them individually make him feel. He is also driven purely by what makes him “feel good”. That means that he will measure the quality of music by the count of how many moments tickled his funny bone. Thus you receive what you asked for, mediocre metalhead.

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Shadow Woods Metal Fest: Location Moves To White Hall, Maryland

by Staff on June 11, 2015

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The inaugural September installation of Shadow Woods Metal Fest, the new mid-Atlantic, open-air, camping-based metal fest, has moved slightly Southeast, from its initial placement in Southern Pennsylvania to White Hall, in Harford County, Maryland.

Set to take place September 25th – 27th, 2015, the new location of Shadow Woods Metal Fest is similar to the previous site, with deep woods, cabins and tent camping fields, yet is slightly closer to both Baltimore and Philadelphia, making it even more accessible to East Coast metallers planning on attending the diverse three-day festival. The more intimate setup of the new camp is equipped with several cabins, modern plumbing bathrooms, a professional kitchen, a lodge building, and access to a river, as well as an indoor stage.

Since initial announcements, Menace Ruine dropped from the lineup and was replaced by Black Table, yet the remainder of the Shadow Woods Metal Fest lineup remains the same, including lead performances from Midnight, Falls of Rauros, Occultation, Velnias, Iron Man, Anagnorisis, The Flight of Sleipnir and Stone Breath, along with twenty-six additional acts. The fest is also likely to be the first live performance for the surviving members of Wormreich since their tragic vehicle crash in April. The gathering showcases underground black, doom, death, and noise and experimental metal bands on two alternating stages all day Friday and Saturday. Camping and workshops on topics such as runes, guitar maintenance, yoga and more will be offered and are included in the ticket price. Artists and record labels will be vending alongside several onsite food stands.

There will be ZERO ticket sales at the gate for Shadow Woods Metal Fest– advance presales to those 21 years of age and older is the only way into the fest, and is still BYOB. Cabin beds are now included in the ticket price but are limited to first-come first-served. There is a list you can sign up on mentioned in the private group. There are only 350 tickets in total, and half of those tickets have been sold.

Additionally, the Shadow Woods Metal Fest website has been redesigned to include a store — including a new poster for the event designed by Fred Grabosky of Sadgiqacea. — as well as the newly-launched Shadow Woods Radio, showcasing artists set to perform at the festival. Check it all out RIGHT HERE.

SHADOW WOODS METAL FEST 2015 Alphabetical Lineup:

  1. Anagnorisis (Louisville, KY – black metal)
  2. Anicon (New York, NY – black metal)
  3. Ashagal (New Hope, PA – ritual folk)
  4. Black Table (NYC/NJ – experimental metal)
  5. Bridesmaid (Columbus, OH – instrumental doom-sludge)
  6. Cladonia Rangiferina (VA – ritual black metal, doom, acid rock)
  7. Dendritic Arbor (Pittsburgh, PA – black metal / powerviolence)
  8. Destroying Angel (Philadelphia, PA – folk music for exorcisms)
  9. Dreadlords (Philadelphia, PA – ritual black metal blues)
  10. Dweller In The Valley (Frederick, MD – black, death, doom)
  11. Existentium (Baltimore, MD – melodic technical death metal)
  12. Falls of Rauros (Portland, ME – folk/atmospheric black metal)
  13. Fin (Chicago, IL – black metal; unsigned)
  14. Heavy Temple (Philadelphia, PA – psychedelic doom)
  15. Hivelords (Philadelphia, PA – experimental psychedelic black doom)
  16. Immortal Bird (Chicago, IL – black/death metal)
  17. Iron Man (MD – doom metal/heavy rock)
  18. Midnight (Cleveland, Ohio – black heavy metal)
  19. Molasses Barge (Pittsburgh, PA – traditional doom metal)
  20. Occultation (New York, NY – doom metal)
  21. Oneirogen (New York, NY – dark, doom, drone)
  22. Psalm Zero (New York, NY – experimental black doom)
  23. Sentience (Woodland Park, NJ – death metal)
  24. Slagstorm (Hagerstown, MD – prehistoric doom thrash)
  25. Snakefeast (Baltimore, MD – jazz metal sludge)
  26. Stone Breath (Red Lion, PA – experimental folk)
  27. The Black Moriah (Dallas/Fort Worth, TX – Western occult black/thrash)
  28. The Day of the Beast (Virginia Beach, VA – blackened death metal)
  29. The Expanding Man (Baltimore, MD – solo improvisational electronic soundscapes)
  30. The Flight of Sleipnir (Denver, CO – black metal)
  31. The Owls Are Not What They Seem (York, PA – experimental ritual soundscapes)
  32. Tyrant’s Hand (Baltimore, MD – deathened black metal)
  33. Unsacred (Richmond, VA – savage black metal)
  34. Velnias (Denver, CO – blackened folk/doom metal)
  35. Wormreich (Huntsville, AL & Nashville, TN – black metal)
  36. ZUD (Portland, ME – bluesy outlaw black metal)

http://shadowwoodsmetalfest.com
http://www.facebook.com/shadowwoodsmetalfest

 

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Survival – Shayda (2015)

by David Rosales on June 11, 2015

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Hardcore punk band Survival offer us a humble release that although meager can give us a lesson on several album-writing guidelines that any metal band should follow. Shayda is a good example that riffs that are usually attributed to this or that subgenre of metal can be used in different contexts to different effects and reach. These Californians also show us the value of self-control, avoiding self-indulgence in favor of a juvenile honesty that is only fitting for a band in their genre.

There are a few moments in Shayda where one will recognize the predominance of an influence from 1908s hardcore punk bands , but then one will stumble over a happy punk riff, and then one or two brief moments that will flash by with the taste of deathcore breakdowns and even a little 90s hard rock. These are encased at very specific points and are only used extremely measuredly to push the song forward or twist it for a moment with a different taste only to warp back into focus. Their are also a few samples from a movie or a narration that are used as introductions or interludes in the middle of the album with incredibly effective results.

A major highlight of the album from the songwriting point of view is how aware these guys are of the “useful life” of an idea in the context of a style. According to its nature, punk is a genre of simple, direct and clear expression which does not lend itself to infinite variations of the pseudo-mathematical Bachean type. To remain fresh yet not start diverging, the length of the songs is necessarily short. Each of them gives the listener a very clear and single-minded idea. But as a whole Shayda provides a multifaceted experience that remains both consistent and coherent.

Like big brothers Blood, Survival dominate their tools of choice in their genre and work well within their limitations, creating a memorable and musically solid work that can and should be appreciated regardless of taste.

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Hannes Grossmann (Alkaloid, Ex-Obscura, Ex-Necrophagist) Shares Drum Playthrough Video

by Staff on June 11, 2015

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Hannes Grossmann, drummer for German Death Prog band Alkaloid and ex-drummer for technical wanker band Obscura, has revealed a new drum playthrough video of the song “Alter Magnitudes”. The song is taken from Alkaloid’s debut album The Malkuth Grimoire and features some of Grossmann’s abilities on the drum kit.

Hannes comments:

This is an instrumental version of our song “Alter Magnitudes”. I just took the vocals out for the video to make the drums more clear –  which makes sense in a drum video, doesn’t it? This is probably the only tune on our album which can be considered ‘tech-death’, but the technicallity makes it a perfect song for a drum play-through. It was written by our guitarist Christian Muenzner and not just demands a high level performance on the drums – the guitars and bass go crazy too. But most important: I really dig the songs riffs and melodies.

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Suppuration – Devouring Your Prayers (2015)

by David Rosales on June 11, 2015

devouringyourprayers

Opening with a piano section that is completely out of place within the context of their music, Suppuration give us brutal meets groovy streamlined and uneventful death metal with croaking vocals whose creativity and character borders on the comedy of pornogrind.  A  major cause for this might be the production which sandwiches everything into a very narrow frequency range. The drums feel as if they were behind everything else, the guitars and the voice almost superimposed.  But the production is not to be blamed for the composition blunder this whole affair represents.

Devouring Your Prayers shows several marks of incompetence. In this album we can find distracted riffing and drumming that doesn’t completely match, it is as if the musicians where just doing their own thing and they assumed that as long as they were playing in the same tempo and time signature everything would be fine. Second the interludes are completely extraneous to the album, from the musical point of view. Even worse, we find the modern tendency to move from one idea into a completely unrelated one in order to move the music forward. This is a metaphor for denial of reality, not progress.

The band manages to sound both overt yet devoid of character and completely lacking an individual voice. Presenting us with the fireworks, bells and whistles aimed at casual listeners of “the brutal”, Suppuration exemplifies the mediocre, the sell-out and the moronic side of death metal all at once.

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Genital Grinder – Abduction (2015)

by David Rosales on June 11, 2015

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Genital Grinder’s Abduction is one of those albums whose main goal is to punch the listener in the face. They are not the wanker posers of so-called tech death. But they only aim slightly higher: pure brutality. In this case technicality in the service of brutality. There are two angles we should approach this before reaching a conclusion. The first is a lenient way of judging this work on “its own terms”. The second is judging if the overall result is meaningful in the least.

To an insider, that Genital Grinder is a band bent on brutality — on giving the listener a rush based on violent imagery and blunt sound– is a self-evident fact. If in doubt we can take each song and try to describe what is the most salient feature. It is almost always how direct and intense the sections are. The band does insert some brief moments of almost mid-paced trudging without which this would be unbearable on a physical level even for their own fans (although they would still praise it as mind-blowing-ly “br00tal”). The album comes out as a single-minded effort that remains in style while providing enough variation of themes and coherence in songs for them to be distinct. A simple goal has been achieved: another super brutal album has been made.

Regarding the more relevant issue on ranking Abduction on the overall quality scale of music. The songs built around clear ideas and are built around them. The band’s composition limits are revealed when we observe that they are unable to produce major explorations within their music without destroying the idea they presented at first. When they attempt to do so, they are reduced to grooving sections or cliche short melodic riffs with simple 3rds or 5ths doubling.

An incredibly limited release that is monochromatic at all conceivable levels, Abduction will be a solid although uneventful item in the collections and playlists of  those either looking for a casual brutality fix or the Homer Simpsons of death metal who think Cannibal Corpse is “the shit”.

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Dysentery unveils new tracks

by Staff on June 10, 2015

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Slam death metal band Dysentery will release their new album, Fragments, on July 10 on Comatose Music.

Dysenteryare set to embark on the West Coast Fragmentation Tour, beginning with a performance at Las Vegas DeathFest and wrapping up with an appearance at Foothills Gutfest in Colorado Springs.  Tour dates are below. Get in touch for gig coverage and interview opportunities.

  • June 12/13   Las Vegas, NV            Las Vegas County Saloon  (Las Vegas DeathFest)
  • June 14        Salinas, CA                  285 East Alisal
  • June 15        Los Angeles, CA          The Blvd Cafe
  • June 16        Crockett, CA                 Toots Tavern
  • June 17        Sacramento, CA            The Colony
  • June 18        Salt Lake City, UT         Club X
  • June 19/20   Colorado Springs, CO   Sunshine Studios Live (Foothills Gutfest)

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