Devotion - Words and Crystals (2016)

I decided to cover this, because the only English review I could find of it was negative and there has to be a reason that I would have it in my promise pool if it was worth checking out. The reviewer in particular said that he didn't really care for the Deftones style approach that this band dish out, but I on the other hand do like that sort of thing, so I think it's only fair that these guys get a review from someone out there who actually gives a damn about their sound.

First off, Devotion come from Italy and they've played a few shows with the Deftones as well as The Dillinger Escape Plan, two bands that actually match their sound perfectly. They're also on the soundtrack to All Points Bulletin which is some game that EA put out and apparently didn't do very well. That being said, these guys are quite talented if you're into the whole alt/rock and post metal style, and I think you'll find that the frontman has a pleasant voice and a high vocal range at times. He also tends to have a bit of a ferocity within his lines, which can lend very well to some of these pieces. Devotion have a very aquatic sound, despite the occasional tidal waves that occasionally launch waves of Nu-Metal angst, reminding me even a little bit of Filter. No, not Title Of Record Filter either. Those guys have had their share of heavy cuts, just like “P. Hamilton” manages to showcase here. Devotion have not forsaken the Nu-Metal genre, which of course is a thumbs up for me, regardless of the fact that some people don't care for it.

As far as the Deftones influence, I'm going to put this one at a mix of Adrenaline, Around The Fur and Diamond Eyes. Yes, I remember Adrenaline and it was definitely heavy – the right kind of Nu-Metal heavy. Yet what Devotion manage to achieve with such a sound, is waves of atmosphere which always allow the music to breathe. It can be a sledgehammer or a sandwich, depending on the song and mood conveyed within. Perhaps some of the harsher approaches can grain on one's nerves (simply depends on the listener) but I find that for the most part, there is enough variety here within all of the different styles that they attempt to make for a pretty solid listen. I'd definitely give it that much, as you may find that you like it.

(10 Tracks, 39:00)

7/10

TMHM - Stage Names (2016)

Canada's TMHM (The Man and His Machine) have been around for five years now and have self released three EP's as well as two live discs throughout their lengthy tenure. This recording marks the act's first full-length and official debut, which as of this writing is also a self-released recording. The only difference here, is that that album was recorded in Rain City Studios, where acts like Misery Signals, Japandroids and Baptists were also put through the three-step process of recording, mixing and mastering.

Although this is the act's first debut release, it still feels like an EP due to length, but I guess that is to be expected from a band who is most likely (and I'm just taking a guess – not even an educated one) used to writing and recording smaller albums in an EP format. It merely graces over twenty-two minutes of overall playtime. The sound I can describe as a mix of Nu-Metal, post, punk and core, which certainly doesn't turn me away due to the Nu-Metal elements alone. Those of you who've been with us a long time will know that I grew up in the age of Nu-Metal and first cut my teeth on this music. Though I've reviewed and enjoy more extreme approaches as well, I've always had a soft spot for this kind of music.

We start right with the very Nu-Metal style of “Bad Luck In Belleville” which seems to echo some of the heavier moments of acts like Primer 55. The vocal end of things is definitely a bit loud and even somewhat obnoxious in the mix, but I think that adds some real heart and feeling to the music. When we get into “Toxic Mix” we're listening to a post-metal piece which almost carries a bit of punk with it. The punk and groove elements punch up with “18 Oz” which might not be for everyone, but it's got a hell of a lot of piss and vinegar. “Threadcounts” changes the style of the band to a punk influenced core or powerviolence if you will. I guess I'm a bit reminded of Gallows without the sing-along parts. The powerviolence seems to carry right on over into the title cut, which is quite raucous, but I'm almost afraid that the frontman is about to blow a blood vessel.

“Better Half” changes the style a bit to aloow for more down-tuned bass, but the Nu-Metal influence has been removed almost completely in favor of something that sounds like more of what we've just heard. It's not a bad approach, but it makes me feel that the beginning of the disc might be a bit misleading to listeners. TMHM certainly have a lot of fight in them though, I can say that. The rest of the record doesn't offer much more than we've heard at this point, so you should already be aware of what you're getting now. Saying little more about the album, if you like incredibly noisy approaches that combine punk along with various metal elements, you'll certainly find something in what I can consider a rather solid and outspoken release.

It sounds like the voice of a generation, in which a cacophony of words amount to distress and frustration towards society and it's machinations as a whole. I believe this is the sound of the rebellion, though I'm not quite sure what the rebellion is against these days. The wealthy capitalist machine cannot be beaten in a physical manner, one will merely have to wait until it finishes it's tenure and goes kaput all on it's own. 

People obviously seem a bit disrupted by the current system of economics and government, which of course will bring about some sort of change in paradigm. Though that change in paradigm, I believe; had already been planned from the get-go. It is much easier to get people to rebel against and remove something themselves, than to just completely have it removed altogether – especially when they'll find that the next system probably won't work as well as this one. But what can I say? Progress has a price. Give this one a listen if you're full of rage and angst against the infernal machine.

(8 Tracks, 22:00)

7/10

Rob Zombie - The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser (2016)

Obviously thrown together at the last fucking minute, this absolute waste of fucking time actually only clocked in at about thirty-one minutes and left me unmoved. Although there are few good ideas utilized here and there and it is a surprisingly heavier disc, the album seems like it could have benefited from longer tracks and possibly a little more initiative. Our intro is pretty forgettable, with only a reverberating thump to benefit “Electric Warlock Acid Witch!” which then goes right into “Satanic Cyanide/The Killer Rocks On” a track that features more electronics, but the same approach to Hellbilly albeit in a different style. Rob Zombie used to experiment more vocally, but he's trying to go back to Hellbilly yet again here and it isn't working for him. We've already heard it, Rob. We've heard it done twice now and there's no need to go back into it. “The Life and Times of A Teenage Rock God” sounds like Zombie might think he's a Rock God for the teens of the current age, which is bullshit as I don't even want to know what the teens are digging, but it's definitely not him. The chorus is strong, there's a nice solo (and an unnecessary clip from a stage show) but once again, it's just so damn formulaic and I've already heard it. When Rob finally tried to do something new with “Everybody's Fucking In A U.F.O.” it backfires on him drastically. The track sounds like a mixture of “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” and “Wynonna's Big Brown Beaver” smushed together in a vein that makes it's sound like an old drunk fool yammering about in complete fucking gibberish. Quite possibly, this is the worst song he's ever attached to his name. What in the hell was he thinking? “A Hearse That Overturns...” comes across as a relatively decent instrumental, where soundclips move into acoustic soundscapes and make a difference. You see, Rob's band is doing a great job on this record. The problem is, Rob Zombie himself isn't.

“...Gore Whore” adds seventies style keyboards to what sounds like sort of party rock. It's decent enough, kind of catchy. But nothing out of the ordinary. “Meditation For The Melancholy” is a little bit better, as it's a more hard-driving number, but it ends abruptly. One of the disc's only good tracks “...Get High” starts off oddly just like “More Human Than Human” and seems to deliver in it's Nu-Metal thumps, as well as an unexpected solo. Rob Zombie's actually on his game here, but the chorus I feel might have hit better if I was still in high school and not about to turn thirty-one myself. The chorus is literally nothing but “Get, get, get, get, high!” over and over, which sounds like it was just kind of slapped together. “Super Doom Hex Gloom Pt. 1” is another instrumental, but it works pretty well if you like keyboard soundscapes as much as I do. “In The Bone Pile” is a decent Hellbilly style song, but once again it shows that Rob is definitely overdoing it with that approach. There are already a bunch of songs that sound similar and this is truly formulaic as hell. “Get Your Boots On/ That's The End of Rock and Roll” comes in with a party rock feel, along with a weird chorus that doesn't really do any of his previous choruses justice. What in the hell was he thinking here? Even a decent solo section can't save this retread. The album ends with the unexpectedly interesting “Wurdalak” though, which actually distorts Rob's voice a little bit and has some threatening thumps. What I found was very odd and a perhaps foreshadowing a little about the man's music career, is the extremely forlorn piano piece that appears at the end of the record. It is definitely a sad piece, backed with wind and thunder which sort of seems like Rob Zombie's death knell in regards to his musical endeavors. He is starting to get a little older (that's obvious just from looking at the cover) so maybe he's lamenting his own demise, especially with so many celebrities dying as of late. There is the actual possibility that Rob might have felt that he was next or something, and wanted to hurry up and get this record out as quickly as possible. Maybe he thought that last track was supposed to be a remembrance piece to him, and was expecting to have died before the record released. In that case, it would have been fitting there.

If nothing else, this absurdly long album title and it's absurdly long track titles are very much reminiscent of classic Rob Zombie. If nothing else, this retread seems like a celebration of all that he's done over the past couple of decades and I can understand that. That being said, maybe it's time that he stick to movies and veer away from music for a while. His latest musical performance DVD was nearly unwatchable, as he nearly butchered classics in an effort to go through them as quickly as possible. I really hope this means that “31” won't be rushed through as well, because as of right now, that's the only thing from him that I'm looking forward to right now. I really wouldn't care if he ever released another disc, if this is all we're going to get. If you need to hear Rob Zombie, then La Sexorcisto, Astro-Creep 2000 and Past/Present/Future are really all you need. Everything else just seems to be retread at this point, which makes this record an unnecessary addition to your Rob Zombie collection. As a commenter on social media put it, “Rob Zombie needs to spend less time making ridiculously long song and album titles, and more time writing actual music.” That I believe, says it best.

(12 Tracks, 31:00)

5/10

Project F - The Butterfly Effect (2016)

Project F are a sort of industrial Nu-Metal act with an interesting look that I can get behind. There are only five real tracks here aside from an intro and interlude, but if you like thick grooves and hard hitting choral angst like I did back when I was still cutting my teeth on heavy music, you'll find something here. I'm reminded a lot of the early stuff from acts like Deftones, American Head Charge, Mudvayne and Coal Chamber as well as the mid-era stuff that Transport League was doing. “Tongue” sounds so much like a Nu-Metal track that it's pathetic, but with such a loud and catchy chorus line, it works just as it's supposed to. “Cut Your Wings” doesn't really hit me so hard, but “Unbegun” hits a little harder and contains that sort of psychotic sense that I've always liked from this kind of music. Many of the electronic compositions work well with the more metallic elements of the band, so that helps to create the whole rusty industrial atmosphere of so many similar acts. “Fat Man” has the right idea as far as the angst, rage and punchy grooves of Nu-Metal are concerned and it makes it's point known pretty well. I'd definitely consider it one of the stronger points on the disc along with “Tongue.” These guys know what kind of music they want to make and are doing a great job with it. The last song is an outro, so technically there are only four heavy cuts here instead of the five I'd first mentioned, but that last track is technically nearly five minutes long even though it's a rather classy piano piece. “When The Angel Fell From The Sky” also contains that quote I've heard on ten and twenty albums, where Vishnu declares himself “death” and “the destroyer of worlds.” We're using this so much in metal that it might be a sort of unspoken mantra, but that's entirely beside the point. After my observance of this album, I consider Project F pretty promising even though I feel that this sounds like the early demo records from many bands during the Nu-Metal era. That being said, more often than not, they got better and I feel that the same will happen with Project F. Let's give them a chance, I think they have so much to offer to a sub-genre of metal that while some people hate, I was always a fan of. Old habits die hard, I still love this stuff and I like to see that there are still some bands out there doing it justice.

(7 Tracks, 25:00)

7/10

Maximum The Hormone - Mimi Kajiru EP (2016)

Mimi Kajiru is a mere EP from the Japanese experimentalists, who seem to mix together elements of everything from punk to Nu-Metal to djent and a lot of other things. They're not as obscure as they used to be, especially since performing for the first time in the US during last year's Knotfest event. These songs also incorporate J-Rock as expected, as well as some silliness. There's a lot of silliness utilized here on the vocals, almost the kind of thing that you'd expect from Mike Patton. This time around, these guys really tend to love their punk, which you'll hear utilized just as much as the heavier Nu-Metal sections, where the harsh vocals appear. In a song from Maximum The Hormone, it's not too out of character for a track to turn from a happy punk anthem to something that sounds like thundering metallic mayhem. Think Dir En Grey a little, perhaps towards their earlier era. It's obvious that they were having a lot of fun with this one and it feels like a good snack in between their last record and a possible upcoming release. There's just twenty minutes of music here, but between the many different shades of music the listener will digest, it's going to sound a lot longer. Unexpected things like the telephone message and the children's choir appear on this record as well, making for an even more random sense of things. It's not my favorite of their releases, but it's certainly not bad for an EP and gets surprisingly heavy during some sections. But you can't expect any one thing from Maximum The Hormone, nor would we ever want that. It's obvious that fans of Slipknot and their style would certainly find something in the down-tuned riffs and vocal delivery laden within these tracks, but they'll be forced to open up their palette to new ideas of which they might not be keen to at first - especially with all the roaring punk influence. I'd say to give it a shot if you can find it, because it is worth a listen or two. But they've delivered better in the past and will no doubt deliver even better in the future.

(7 Tracks, 20:00)

7/10

Black Sleep - The Whales Of The Grey Sea (2016)

Black Sleep are one of the most interesting new bands that I've heard in years. Why I say that, is because they've mixed together two styles of music that you just wouldn't think would ever worked. Quite simply, this EP sounds like Arcturus if they had a run-in with the groove metal of Fear Factory. You can obviously hear both influences in the music, and it's admittedly very odd – but oddly catchy as well. They're a four-piece from out of Finland, and this is obviously their debut release even though it's short enough to be placed in with our demos and EP's over at New Noise. Comically, I'm also seeing several other review blogs mentioning the band as Black Sheep, which I also thought was their name until I really took a look at it. The frontman has a very similar tone to Garm, which I thought was very unexpected, especially from a Finnish act where that sort of Norwegian influence would have to be a learned one. But even if the guy did stay up all night trying to imitate Garm's performance on records like The Sham Mirrors, I can certainly say that he's done it justice. “Tiny Pieces” gives a heavy dose of chunk and synth, but paired with that unusual vocal approach, it comes out as something altogether different. But that's just the icing on the cake compared to “Soulcatcher” which is definitely one of the best cuts on the release. This is where more of the slightly operatic avantgarde elements come into play, along with the clean chorus, which reminds me of Burton C. Bell a little bit. Now there's obviously some angry grunts used here along with the new metal crunch, but it's definitely a change in styles that I can get into. Another one I liked was “Moonsick” for the same reasons, which would be a strong clean vocal and symphonic element. The disc's closer “Animal Puppets” also stands out, ending the record on a promising note. Again, there is definitely an avantgarde sense to Black Sleep and I think that it's strong enough here to get your attention over the more groove-oriented and nu-metal elements laden within. But I also really enjoy these sections, so the band works as a solid whole for me. But with as many intriguing pieces as The Whales Of The Grey Sea contains, it still feels like a good first step that needs further exploration and evolution. I really hope that such an uncanny act continues to make music like this, as it's something very fresh that we truly need in the metal scene today. I really hope that these guys continue, because they're one of the few acts that actually caught my attention out of the hundreds I receive on a weekly basis.

(6 Tracks, 32:00)

8/10

Emil Bulls - XX (2016)

German alt/nu-metal rockers Emil Bulls have been around for twenty years, yet this is now the first that I'm ever hearing of them. In order to commemorate the band's twenty year anniversary, this “Greatest Hits” compilation was made in a very peculiar way. At first, not having known anything about the band prior, I was going to say that such a disc was a horrible marketing attempt for a brand new recording. But XX is simply not that. Instead of giving you a “Greatest Hits” collection of sorts, the band decided to record many of their songs in a much sappier, lighthearted tone as you'll witness here. It actually sounds kind of goth, to be honest; definitely a mile's difference from the kind of material you'll hear during the much upbeat “Hellfire versions” as they are titled. This, is in essence the band's actual “Greatest Hits” disc, which fans will have to purchase as a special limited edition digipack, of which I am not fond of. If you're going to release a “Greatest Hits” album, then it should come with these lighter “Candlelight versions” to begin with, rather than making people spend extra money for what is the actual product.

Of the many tracks offered here, I'll mention that there is very little difference between the lighthearted (some might say darkhearted) version of “Dear Sadness” and the slightly more upbeat original. The same could be said for “Dancing On The Moon” of which the differences are nearly vacant. However, the differences between the fiercely brackish Hellfire version of “Way Of The Warrior” and the Candlelight version of the track are so much like night and day that it's amazing how it works. It's almost like Emil Bulls have transformed into a completely different band, not unlike something to the tune of Coldplay or U2. The same might be said of “Hearteater” which takes an almost Mudvayne meets Soilwork approach and turns it into a nearly romantic ballad. Look, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it for myself. Then we have a thrasher with a clean chorus in the form of “The Most Evil Spell” that completely changes shape. I actually had to listen to see if “you fucking coward” was in the piece, which it was. There's actually quite a few F-bombs in this poppy number, making me think of something from Gotye, Finger Eleven or Maroon 5 with a little more bite. I think it's “Worlds Apart” though, that had the greatest effect on me. Though the Candlelight version is quite expectable for such a composition, I really like the balls-out Soilwork influenced Hellfire version of the track. I wish I'd heard that one years ago.

As you can see, XX is definitely something different, but it actually works and I have to say that I'm quite fond of it. From what I've heard on both discs, I can see that Emil Bulls are indeed an act to be reckoned with and it's very surprising that these guys never made it to the US. I can see fans of acts like Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Soilwork, Five Finger Death Punch, Motograter and Linkin Park really getting into the material presented here. Just think, twenty years have passed and I had no idea who these guys were and just how damn catchy their tunes are. Sorry folks, but we don't have all the great rock bands here in the states. Give this one a listen to see what you're missing.

(2 Discs, 29 Tracks)

8/10