The most interesting releases of the week!
The riffs are good. The vocals too. Sometimes there’s a long, complicated explanation of why I like an album that takes forever to find the words to halfway-describe, and sometimes a band has catchy guitar lines and personable singing. Terra was released on Majestic Mountain Records.
Ok, I don’t want to sell the band short. Black Magic Tree composed 70s hard rock songs and gave them tight performances. Part of why the band is so catchy, so entertaining, is their ability to give tight and focused performances. Black Magic Tree also could have screwed up their formula by getting too complicated or trying to add some flair or genre-blend that didn’t belong, but instead they maintained discipline and let their great melodies shine. There’s just not that much more to say. Terra is for you if you enjoy well-played guitar music, which is quite a wide net, but it’s what happens when you give top tier performances on accessible, well-written songs.
Dead and Dripping have been around the block a few times now. Nefarious Scintillations, released on Transcending Obscurity Records, is my favorite release from them so far. This album finds the band playing a stripped-down version of their typically psychedelic brutal death metal sound. The obvious comparison is Demilich, although Dead and Dripping play a faster and more frazzled sound then that band. Nefarious Scintillations is a cluttered, precise release.
Despite the brutal death moniker attached to Dead and Dripping, Nefarious Scintillations is a patient album. Ideas come undone slowly over the course of a track, riffs get interrupted by bass twangs, and passages linger on for a beat too long where it makes sense to do so. And the band avoids the hectic chaos of some of their peers. Anyone into the weirder side of death metal, or anyone looking to dip their toes into the style without going full Pyrrhon, will find a good home in Nefarious Scintillations.
Hyver play their blend of dungeon synth and black metal well enough on their third full-length Shaâtaunoâr, released on Antiq Records. But that’s not the selling point here. This album is presented as a choose-your-own adventure novel, complete with narration telling the listener what track to go to next depending on their choices, and album art that would fit perfectly in an 80s dungeons and dragons novel. In terms of how well the concept works…well. The vocals on the black metal tracks are growls. As such it is difficult to tell what is going on outside of the spoken-word narration, which somewhat hampers the point of the album. The choose-your-own adventure framing increases the barrier to listening to the record, making it less enjoyable to just put on the record in the background, and forcing an active listening experience. And the framing also draws the attention away from the music itself and towards what sometimes seems like a gimmick.
Despite all of this, Hyver have made a fascinating and unique album. It helps that the music is both enjoyable to listen to and fits the premise of the story. The band’s atmospheric riffs drift off into dungeon synth and spoken word narration completely naturally and then return with Havukruunu-like instrumentation under mystic and arcane sounding vocals. The concept is so unique and the band solid enough that Shaâtaunoâr is worth a listen.
Struck A Nerve play fast and furious crossover thrash, and their self-titled debut was released on Listenable Records. The band will go over well for fans of Kreator or Toxic Holocaust. Struck A Nerve composes with an ear towards the mosh pit and the crowd chanting back. They also tend to focus on speed and pizzaz over anything else. As such, you won’t find interesting riffs or new perspectives on thrash from Struck A Nerve, you’ll just find a great time.
“Parade Of Violence” serves as a good microcosm of Struck A Nerve as a whole. Nothing here would seem out of place on an 80s CD other than the modern production. I can’t remember a single riff, and the guitar solos and choruses both could have been transplanted from a different song with a little work. But what the band ignores in songwriting, they make up for with performances. Both the guitar solos and choruses sound fantastic. The drums carry large chunks of the album, with tight beats that accent the guitars and drive up the energy. And the bass provides an excellent foundation for the guitars, blending in to give depth and simultaneously driving the songs forward by staying on top of the beat to the point of being almost early. The production sounds clear as well, giving me the ability to actually hear all of the performances. Struck A Nerve is a fun, unapologetic album.
