In the years after underground metal imploded and became assimilated by standard teenage rock music, metal musicians have been reaching out toward styles which avoid the stereotypical elements of the underground. (more…)
16 CommentsTags: dawning, Gothic rock, guitar rock, Heavy Metal, interview, nothing left, pale existence, rotten copper, stephen cefala, steve cefala
Living in a dying time presents as many troubles as recording in a dying genre. Something went wrong with metal in 1995, and since that time we have had big oaf idiot metal from the NWN/FMP types which bores us, versus popular metal music which is vapid and consumerist at its core and so has nothing to offer of substance.
11 CommentsTags: dawning, Doom Metal, gothic, Heavy Metal, nothing left, review, rotten copper, steve cefala
Former Dawning/Nothing Left composer and periodic Death Metal Underground writer Steve Cefala has unleashed his latest project, an attempt to synthesize metal, industrial, punk and post-apocalyptic roadhouse improvisational rock into a soundtrack for the decline and collapse of human civilization.
1 CommentTags: dawning, no god only pain, nothing left, rotten copper, steve cefala
t
Some compare this to Mortician but to these ears, it sounds more like a Cathedral, Cianide and Asphyx crossover. Where Mortician adopted slowed-down grindcore stylings to death metal, Nothing Left bring a pure grindcore approach to the type of pummeling, rhythm-driven riffing that powers Cianide or Asphyx, and adds the droning doomy feel of later doom bands like Cathedral.
12 CommentsTags: death metal, Doom Metal, Grindcore, nothing left, review
Hepatitis C or HIV?
22 CommentsTags: alternative rock, Barús, beansidhe, black 'n roll, blackened death metal, Christian, Christian Metal Isn't Metal, crypto-indie, death 'n' roll, deathcore, gojira, nothing left, sadistic metal reviews, spellcaster
Way back in the halcyon days of 1999, Steve Cefala (Dawning, Pale Existence) joined forces with Mike Beams (Exhumed), Brian Glover (Bred For Slaughter, Pale Existence) and Jon Nedbal (Disembodiment, Bred For Slaughter) to make detuned high-volume death/doom metal. From those sessions emerged this 25 minute demo which owes as much to early grindcore as to death metal and doom metal.
The constant assault of “Demo 1999” calls to mind bands like Mortician that intended to make thunderous slow primitive death metal, and energetic heavy-bass assault grindcore bands like Drogheda. The result alternates between slow grinding passages and picked up two-chord uptempo charges, aiming with these basic songs more to create atmosphere than work in a dozen riffs in the death metal style. Like deathgrind slowed down but without the insistence on utterly basic catchy rhythms, taking more of the Napalm Death approach of making basic rhythms sound alien and unnerving, Nothing Left surges like the pulsing sounds of tanks passing in the night on their way to an apocalyptic battle.
Primarily influenced by Mayhem, Brujeria and Mortician, Nothing Left existed for a few short years. To get their signature sound, the band tuned down almost an octave and played at top volume through two full stacks and giant overdriven bass cabinets, then ran the bass through a DOD Meatbox subharmonic pedal that generates a companion tone two octaves below. The result throbs and hangs in the air like a nuclear blast, rumbling and surging within its slowed-down rhythms. True to its influences, it takes the low-fi primitive grind sound and gives it the expansive atmosphere of black metal while reducing all that it creates to incomprehensible destruction. For those who can confront such a monster, band has made the full demo available on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLG8YyTtqi4
13 CommentsTags: bred for slaughter, brian glover, dawning, exhumed, jon nedbal, mike beams, nothing left, pale existence, steve cefala
