No Raza - When Chaos Reigns (2014/2015 Reissue)

Well, we here (I guess me and all of my damn egregores at this point, because I'm the only one working on this) at The Grim Tower try not to review albums that are a couple of years old if we can help it, but someone sent me this No Raza promo from back in 2014 and it wound up in my Promise Pool somehow (that's where all the good stuff goes, folks). The record was also reissued on GS Productions and The Horror Dimension around '15, so that is probably one of the reasons it was sent my way. Granted, this one was sent in February (still doing the fall cleaning) yet it went practically untouched by the rest of the metal media. Why? I have no idea. These Columbians pound out death metal in just the fashion I'd expect, accentuated with equally potent guitar solos. I guess we could compare them to an act like Brujeria and that's certainly not a bad thing. Melodies are utilized on the record, but none that I would consider beautiful or uplifiting. Surprisingly, the production value here is quite strong, with the horrific growls heavily audible in the mix, amidst the guitar crunch and drum batallion. No Raza craft a very groove-laced death metal, quite common of their peers, albeit with some more complex structures in areas. That being said, this isn't a record that requires a scientific dissertation. Death and groove fans will enjoy the slightly melodic touch being offered here in all of it's many facets, from speeding moments like “Detonator” to punchier groove efforts like “Evil's Seed” that recall Bloodbath. Even the frontman reminds me a little of Akerfeldt when he first fronted the act. When Chaos Reigns is a very catchy and pretty solid death metal disc, which I think did deserve a reissue and could still hold it's own this year. Regardless of whether or not this one gets the kind of promotion it deserves, that isn't going to stop these guys anytime soon. Definitely give it a listen. If the physicals are gone, you can grab the disc from their Bandcamp page too. More than likely, the physicals can also be ordered there. I definitely think you'll find one hell of a wallop in this one and I don't mean that lightly.

(8 Tracks, 36:00)

8/10

Spreading Dread - Age Of Aquarius (2016)

Though you may not have heard of them, (and the only review that exists in English is a three-star from Metal Temple) this is actually the sophomore release from the Czech based power/thrashers. (Am I reading that right, Metal Archives?) So the idea of this review is pretty simple. Should I go along with what the temple scribes consider to be a realitively decent record, or should I look a little further? First of all, this record seems about the furthest thing from power/thrash. It sounds instead like more of a mixture between melodic death metal and modern metalcore. Except for the fact that it changes from that quickly after album opener “Devolution” and mutates into a more neo-classically influenced style that reminds me of a mixture between the music of Castlevania and Undertale. Of course, that's just the long intro. We later get clean vocals and more of a Gojira or Tesseract progressive metal feel to the music that I just wasn't expecting at the start. This is much better than the opening note and I personally think they should have thrown that one in the garbage.

Starting the disc on a note like “Oil Stained” (it comes with it's own intro) would have been a great way to open the performance as a whole. I know for certain that there are a few reviewers who have admitted to only listening to the first track on a record to see if they like it. Do you understand what that means, guys? I know it sounds pretty pathetic, but because some people can't be bothered to check out more than one track on a damn record, they probably missed out your more interesting material due to that unnecessary opener. As I continue listening to the rest of the album, it only gets more interesting and features more venturing out into different realms far beyond the normalcy of the opener. “Conspiracy” begins with a hypnotic riff as it goes into what I could consider something of a hefty death/thrash and then builds into a sort of atmospheric rock. Spreading Dread show us that yes, you can go from a death/thrasher into atmopsheric rock, but it's not common. Then the track carries us right into a core-influenced death pummeler that is far more brackish than the death/thrash offered in the beginning. They could have opened the album with this one as well. “Karmic Wheels” rolls right into technicality, as well as what could be a sort of filtered vocal.

You've got to hand it to these guys as they really are trying to make a complex record, which is exactly what Metal Temple reviewer Lauren Fonto had an issue with. She said, “I think they are trying to do too many things with one song.” Good thing there are second opinions, right? You see, the one thing that Fonto seemed to not care about, is what attracted me to this act. Sure, they seem to go a little bit radio on some of these cuts, but I like that. I still think that they should pretend that they never wrote “Devolution” because it doesn't really mirror the mostly progressive nature of what has been achieved here, the mostly technical nature of what has been achieved here – and even though there are sections of modern and core influence, much has been accomplished in forty minutes than a slew of similar acts have tried for in the past.

Once again, I do believe that more people probably would have picked this one up if they had put the melodic deathcore track on the bottom and gave writers a real example of their talent. I'm not going to mince words here though, as I've never been a fan of core atmospheres, especially a disc that crunches so heavily on deathcore when it wants to be heavy. I'd have to be a fool not to see that there was something promising budding out here, and Fonto seemed to say the same thing in her review of the disc. We both seem to agree that these guys have potential, but she thinks they're too rambunctious and I think they're just too damn core. Did you forget that death metal existed? If they would fuse with death metal, there might be more of an applicable palette for me, but all of these breakdowns and such can even take away from the wonderful progressives and astonishing solos that these guys manage to pull off. Spreading Dread didn't really get the respect they deserved this time around, and maybe if they decide to switch the tracks around next time (and I honestly do recommend several bands to do this, because it is true of several reviewers – this is why the single is normally the first or second track on an album) on the promo, they'll get more coverage. I definitely that you give Age Of Aquarius a listen though, as it is a real diamond in the rough that can cause as much surprise as cringe. It just depends on how you like your metal, because this record is a buffet of sorts.

(8 Tracks, 43:00)

7/10

Xaon - Face Of Balaam (2016)

Xaon are about to release this recording in just a couple of days, which is their very first EP offering. I know very little about these guys, and the leaflet I have here sounds like it was copied via a hook translator for a Japanese visual novel. Good thing I can decipher some of this. In any case, it (seems) that Xaon are influenced by nineties era Anathema, My Dying Bride, Disgrace, Paradise Lost, Type O Negative, Ulver, Soilwork and Demonical among others; even though I can scarcely even a catch a glimpse from most of these acts in the music being presented here. For a band that seems so closely tied to dreary soundscapes, I'm hearing very little of that. As a matter of fact, the Soilwork and Chimera influence seems to be a bit stronger here. That leads me to the problem as well – the vocals seem to follow along a gut-punch sort of hardcore style that just works as a bit of a turn-off for me. If I was given the choice today to wake up in a completely different dimension where the gut-punch style vocal had never been invented by hardcore and would never be invented for the span of mankind's existence, I would take that option right now. I just don't care for these throat-saver vocals, which sound to me like a scraping of the vocal chords. It's not catchy to me and sounds very adolescent. Pre-pubescent, actually.

That being said, Vinc (Ever Since) and Flo (Ever Since, Calcined, Serpens Luminis, Erzebeth Dane) actually have a strong grasp on musicianship here. Bjorn Strid (Soilwork) actually guests on “Decrowned” which is one of my favorite songs here, and his vocals actually fit within their compositions. I actually kind of like the harsh vocal point that comes right after Strid sings “I was looking for the face of Balaam” which utters, “But I only found his reflection!” Now this actually makes me want to find out who in the hell Balaam is. I'm either thinking some sort of ancient god or a daemon/djinn. It could also be some sort of Indian deity. I really have no clue, so check it out yourself! (Google = Library Of Alexandria 2.0) I also need to mention that the clean vocals are very strong here. I might be able to growl far better, but this guy can certainly sing much better than I can. (Unless you want to hear what sounds like a whipped choir boy.)

Since we have such a powerful clean vocal effort here, I tend to not mind the gut-punch segments so much. Also, the music in general is a little too cleaned up for hardcore fans, which made me think of earlier Chimaira, which I think metal fans can find at least one good album from of they looked hard enough. Adding to that are some wondrous melody lines as well as the all expectant solo, which is all quite befitting of the genre. Face Of Balaam is a heavy record for sure, but there's enough melody and clean singing here to appeal to fans of traditional Swedish melodeath, or should we say more modern Swedish melodeath, as neither In Flames nor Soilwork, nor Dark Tranquillity adapted clean vocals until much later. Give or take, two of those bands succeeded where the other failed in their attempt. Shame. I'd probably have gotten into this record a little more if there was a bit more gravel in the vocal area, but it's still worth recommending in my book, and it stands as a rather solid effort. Xaon are a new band and this marks their break into the heavy metal scene. You can certainly come off much worse this early in the game. I'm looking forward to their next output.

(5 Tracks, 26:00)

7/10

Grizzlyman - Grizzlyman (2014)

When I finished that review for Teorema, the publicist got back to me and asked if there was anything else I wanted to cover, giving me a list of bands. Well, I checked them all and couldn't find any in the Promise Pool (that Simulacro completely skipped right by me though, so I'll be listening to it shortly) except for this Grizzlyman record that I found in the shortlist. Apparently this one's a demo from a Swedish progressive sludge act and there aren't too many of those around to be honest, so I'm more than happy to cover it (regardless of the fact that it is a tape only release that goes back to '14). We're certainly getting a warm disc which has it's moments of hefty riffing, but that isn't all the band offer and sometimes it feels like we're getting a little bit of Pelican. That can be a bit of a detriment as there are already a dozen songs out there like “Last King” and hopefully they can throw some more vocals into the mix to offset what seems an unnecessary instrumental. Vocals do manage to slide their way in, but right near the very end where they almost seem just as unnecessary as the song. The same thing seems to happen on the demo's final track, “Beneath/Rebirth” which almost sounds bizarre to me. Why compose an entire song and only put vocals in towards the end? It literally sounds like a band just toying around with ideas to me and these guys aren't really sure as to what kind of band they should be. According to the lack of releases after this demo, they haven't been sure for nearly three years. I must admit that I'm a bit confused by this and wonder what I ever really saw in it. According to Metal Archives, they are still active and perhaps working on a follow-up to whatever this was supposed to demonstrate. Time will tell as to where they'll go next.

(3 Tracks, 15:00)

5/10

Blasphemer - Ritual Theophagy (2016)

Italy's Blasphemer are another great brutal death act, showing that they've no signs of stopping after such a wonderfully competent performance eight years after the release of the band's original debut (On The Inexistence Of God '08) which is an awfully long time in between discs, to be honest. Additionally, this album is a bit short at only a little under half-hour of playing time, but that's not a real problem as the performance is proficient enough to warrant the short tenure of the disc. One of the first things that I notice about this disc is actually two things: the drums and the guitars. Though that normally goes without saying and doesn't count out frontman Paolo Maniezzo's monstrous vocal grumblings, I really feel that there's an exceptionally strong chemistry between that of Darren Cesca (Deeds Of Flesh, Eschaton, Goratory, Pillory, Virulence) experimental drum compositions and Simone Bringo's (Beheaded) equally experimental and rather precise guitar compositions. Both of these guys love to experiment, and the record comes off as more of an abstract death metal (listen to Clod De Rosa's (Modus Deliciti) bass tinges here and there too, he's trying to add his own chemicals into the mix) recording that seems to carry on not only it's non-religious themes lyrically, but musically in the form of what I would call “scientific death metal.” If you don't adhere to religion, then you would naturally gravitate more to science, or satanic science as what I'd consider here with all the praise to the dark lord within the disc's lyrical matter. Regardless of the band's stance there, it is certainly an impressive performance that seems to deliver far more within the scope of the progression itself.

If for some odd reason the vocal performance cheapens it for you, just try to focus on the piece on a compositional manner. Even without Maniezzo's vocals, this is a very interesting lesson in musical chemistry and I believe that is the main selling point. This isn't the kind of groove-pummeling New York death metal that I reviewed earlier with band labelmates Dehumanized. Blasphemer offer something completely different. Regardless of the fact that there are over ten different Blasphemer's registered on the Metal Archives, (some of them are defunct, though) these guys are certainly one of the best of those and they actually manage to add to the performance with their vocie clips. Clips are always hit or miss, but the way that these guys add them (in intros and outros) really seems to pepper the oncoming freight train of calculated Italian death metal in a way that comes nearly unparalleled. While there are a lot of bands out there performing this style, you can definitely consider the unbridled rage, tension and technicality (there are even some sections that resemble black metal, so pay attention to that) that comes packed into Blasphemer's sophomore record one of the best examples in this particular style. I'd certainly recommend it.

(11 Tracks, 27:00)

8/10

Dehumanized - Beyond The Mind (2016)

Hailing from New York, Beyond The Mind represents the second offering from this brutal death metal quartet (though it's technically their third album) since they reuinted in '12 with Controlled Elite. The listener can expect a powerfully chunky dose of groove-laden death metal here, which never lets up. These guys don't use voice clips or synthesizers or ambient pieces or electronics. They may reach into breakdowns, but the inhuman bear-growl of Lead vocalist Mike Centrose (Through The Discipline) and drummer/vocalist George Torres (Artery Eruption) are the perfect vocal embodiment for such utterances, and on a breakdown heavy piece like “Drawn By Blood” it even works to remind me a little of Dying Fetus. Now the production value here is a little high and it doesn't sound quite as warm as other death metal discs, but it still manages to deliver up some of what I'd consider to still to be a piping hot and ready New York pie (that's pizza for the rest of us) with your favorite toppings. As long as those topping consist of guts, gravel and grotesquerie – and that crust is filled to the brim with absolutely crushing riff matter courtesy of longtime guitarist Rich Nagasawa. By the way, Nagasawa hasn't forgotten about lovers of weird progressive landscapes, because they certainly do work their way into this chunky mound of dough, cheese and brain matter. Even the artwork for the piece looks sort of metaphysical, and you'd think it was a bit brainier than it is from seeing it at the record store. But that's fine, because it is still quite cognitive. Just not in the vain that you would expect.

Dehumanized aren't about to pull the plug on their brutality here, so if you're worried by this “new age” kind of cover adornment, don't worry. This record is still going to tear you apart, just as the band's previous discs have been known to do. The imminent bass poundings that one will experience from Anthony Cossu serve as the majority of that crust, and this recording allows you the favor of eating the crust first. It's a great atmosphere – an absolute sea of slightly brainy brutality that I don't think I could help but to recommend. There's nothing better than a New York pizza pie, and Beyond The Mind is a fine example of that in a musical form. It's piled on with toppings, piping hot and ready to go – I don't think you can get much better than this. Grab the disc and a pizza while you're at it. I'm pretty sure that by the end of reading this review, you'll want to get a supreme with entrails and all. Just as these guys would've wanted.

(10 Tracks, 40:00)

8/10

Big Guns - Six Shooter (2016)

Sent directly from the man himself, this six track EP features Vaarwel (Frozen Ocean, Goatpsalm) on vocals and Postie handling the guitars, bass, drum programming, background vocals and mixing. It's a two man project, which of course I'm quite familiar with, also being in one. The difference here is that Big Guns is a much different record from that of Frozen Ocean or Goatpsalm, being that this is far removed from any kind of black metal, atmospheric pieces or electronics. The band consider themselves a rock n' roll band mixed with death metal and hot pepper, which is definitely what I'm getting here. The grooves are as heavy as the blues-influence, which really rolls in around “Pearl-Jammed” until the whole thing becomes that of a Cannibal Corpse-esque performance which I would have never expected. Vaarwhel has one hell of a growl, which is about as deep and mountainous as any I've heard in this business. I'm not a huge fan of some of the more spoken word portions, but these guys stormed past me like a runaway train during the first couple of cuts. From “Hard As Tin” to “Grammar Guerillas” you're be literally hammered with grooves, as well as a extremely thick drumming performance. If you hadn't told me that these drums were programmed, I'd have never guessed. This record in general sounds incredibly, warm, thick and meaty, like you'd expect from looking at the album cover. I would have never expected a death n' roll band to come from this group, but I can't say that I'm displeased with it. There are a couple sections that might need to be ironed out, but there's plenty of enjoyment here in it's eleven-minute playing time. The disc is heavily fast-paced, but it certainly has moments in which to slowly burn and remind me a little of bands like EyeHateGod, Down and Pantera. Except for the fact that it's a bit heavier. There's even a Six Feet Under similarity to the album's final track (a real groove-monster) called “Dragon Hedge” but it sounds far better than anything Six Feet Under have released in several years, certainly recently (but don't get me started on that again.) Short, but brandishly burly and incessantly pummeling, you're definitely going to want to give this one a listen. It's only three bucks, so pick it up!

(6 Tracks, 11:00)

8/10