The most interesting releases of the week!
Visions of Tomorrow, released on Dying Victims Productions, exists somewhere between 70s hard rock and NWOBHM. The Riven‘s third full-length, this release oozes blues and hooks. The tracks feel stripped down. This feeling paves the way for strong, tight performances, backed by a great production job, to drive the album to success.
The big choruses immediately grab the listener’s attention, and their memorability is a strength. But that’s backed up with incredible control. The vocal growls (in the blues sense, not the death metal sense) are exquisite, the little tonal tilts cover the album in flair, and this vocal performance is over some fantastic twin guitar playing with exact articulation, a crisp, buzzing bass line that feels like the star, and drums that match the mood perfectly at all times. Visions of Tomorrow is just impressive.
More fretless tech death. Sort of. That Fountainhead, the driving creative force behind Changeling, played in Obscura, and that the band also features members of Alkaloid and Vivrum will not surprise anyone. What may surprise you on this Season of Mist release is the sheer number of guests and quirks. At an hour runtime, Changeling is absolutely bursting with ideas, constantly moving through interesting ideas, and crushing listeners under its weight.
Changeling waffles between standard tech death fare and moments that made me frown in a good way. Both are performed as well as you’d expect looking at the band’s lineage. Some of the syncopated, self-interrupting riffs, some of the bizarre moments that feel out of place in the vocals or the strings, make me feel the need to listen to Changelings dozens of more times before really giving a concrete opinion. For now, I’ll just emphasize that I want to listen to this album dozens more times. Looking forward to it.
I’ve been listening to Altars of Madness quite a bit recently. Helljjin Combat, released on Sepulchral Voice Records, gave me deja vu. The second full-length from this ex-Necros Christos and current-Extinction blend of a band, Helljjin Combat builds on Sijjin‘s delibarate, meat-and-potatoes death/thrash sound. Helljjin Combat is astoundingly hard for me to remember how to spell, and that is by far my biggest gripe with the album.
Whereas Altars of Madness has the wild fury of angry youth combined with cutting-edge innovation and messiness, Helljjin Combat brings experience and precision to its sound. The two albums share cutting rhythm guitars, drums more interested in pummeling than maintaining a beat at times to the album’s benefit, solos focused on energy, and riffs that feel more like aggression than notes. But Helljjin Combat is a slowed-down, intentional version of the death/thrash genre. This gives the machine-gun guitar and bass lines a more impressive sound. Backed by clear production and ridiculously entertaining vocals, Sijjin keep the twists and strong performances coming for the entirety of their stretched-out songs. I can’t say it any better than the promo blurb: “Dirty as fuck.”
In Horror, Reborn was released on Redefining Darkness Records. On their second album, Disfuneral play a style of death metal that isn’t death/doom, but definitely was roommates with death/doom in college or something. Fans of Autopsy and Necrot will enjoy Disfuneral.
Disfuneral gives us galloping blast beats, screaming guitars, and a tone that I just love. Whether it’s the vocals on the edge of oblivion or songs that go from high-energy chugging to a slow collapse before building up again while sounding driven the entire time, Disfuneral play their genre with honesty and passion.
The newest EP from goregrind legends Haemorrhage was released on Hells Headbangers. Opera Medica contains no surprises. Haemorrhage is giving us fast, no-frills metal with vocals that waver somewhere between coughing and rasping spoken word. The drums are a bit too high in the mix, but otherwise the production fits the band’s style. The Dismember cover is a nice touch.
Opera Medica sounds messy, which I guess fits goregrind quite well. From a songwriting perspective, there’s not much unexpected here. You get some fun riffs, some surprisingly catchy choruses, and a loud, angry band. Music for those who plan to lose their hearing while moshing. Hoping for more of same soon.
Otherlike Darknesses is Felgrave‘s second full-length, coming five years after the band’s debut. You’d be forgiven for being nervous about a one-man death/doom band kicking things off with an 18-minute epic, but trust me here. Otherlike Darknesses was released on Transcending Obscurity Records. The promotional material describes Otherlike Darknesses as “whimsical,” which certainly fits despite feeling at odds with the genre tags. You can’t really call this progressive as much as exploratory. Whatever else you want to call it, Otherlike Darknesses is captivating.
Felgrave twist in the air with absolute abandon on this album. You leave the realm of metal for minutes at a time, return for bass solos, take turns throughout tritones and clean vocals, and hit great riffs surrounded by layered strings. This is the pinnacle of the “more is more” approach to songwriting, and it only works with the relentless energy and unapologetic creativity of a band like Felgrave. There are moments on Otherlike Darknesses that I don’t enjoy as much as others, but there isn’t a moment that I don’t appreciate.
