Xaon Talks Black Metal Beginnings, Album Composition, Bjorn Strid Guest Spot and Band Recommends!

Swiss trio Xaon are about to release their debut EP very soon. Having played in a successful black metal act for over a decade, this represents a new direction and what I'd consider a revitalized sense of purpose in many ways. Utilizing elements of melodic death metal along with more depressive structures, there is certainly something interesting to note here! 

Interview with Flo (bass/lyrics)

Let’s start by introducing the band. Tell me a little bit about yourselves and how you came to be. You’re about to release your debut EP in just a few days. How excited are you?

Just before Xaon, I was with Vinc’ in band (a well-known swiss melodic black metal band that existed for around fifteen years). We released our very last album, then did some tours and a lot of shows with them, it was some pretty cool. There were some very intense and rewarding moments but and I still don’t know why Vinc’ (the former guitarist of this band) and me became very disconnected towards each other during the latter stages of the band.

Time flew like birds escaping face of the first symptom of plague and the other musicians seemed to be fine playing without any devotion, any utter passion and any interest. They became totally disconnected from metal and it's dark and profound energies. Thus, we decided to wait for the past band's very first hiatus in order to jump at the opportunity to create a new band, Xaon. A new band dedicated to playing devoted, heavy, powerful and melancholic songs under the radiant aegis of some great names like MY DYING BRIDE, KATATONIA, WINTER, the mighty PARADISE LOST, TYPE O NEGATIVE, the German VALBORG, AUSTERE, DAYLIGHT DIES, SATURNUS, ULVER and SOILWORK.

This band was for us like a psychic cork-remover. As a dries fountain, to have a new band with musicians only devoted to heavy and gloomy music was a pure act of resurrection. We wrote the lyrical contents and compositions over a six month period. It was  very intense and pleasant. During the recording of the lead vocal parts, we stood astonished and thrilled by the vocal skills, presence and charisma of the Franco-American singer Rob Carson and we packed him up with us as a permanent member.

We’re madly excited for the release of the album! It’s a big step for us and regardless of how it will be received, we are already very proud of these compositions but we don’t want to hurry because we’re still at the beginning line of this promotional journey. We warmly hope that every metalhead will be able to find in our musical streams something that resounds positively in their inner cloisters and bring some power, courage, strength for his everyday life.

We are just at the inception of our story...

Tell me a little bit about this EP. What was the writing and recording like? It seems that there’s a bit of folk flowing through this, reminding me a little bit of early Disillusion (GER) or Solefald, albeit having a rather crushing edge as well. Then again, there’s also some elctronics. It’s a playful mixed bag.

As I may have said, to have the opportunity to work only with Vinc’ for the musical sphere and myself for the lyrical, textual, conceptual spheres was a complete freedom and we really needed it! To work and play with some musical unbelievers is very tiring, exhausting and frustrating. We both realized that we could just work and follow our hearts and our musical tastes without having to confront ourselves with people that have lost faith in both metal and music in general. We felt it roaring in our guts and in our hearts.

The different melodies, the lyrics and the concept are like some disparate pieces which quietly sleep or stridently infect our minds. These disparate things were coming so quickly that we had to take time to drink some booze in order to talk a lot about how this new music could be or how this next EP would have to sound but every time, we would stay both very prudent and discreet. Vinc’ didn’t play with his face to me during a lot of parts that deserved to be recorded in this EP and I never read to him any pieces of the poems or lyrics that I had already written.

In Xaon, the creation of some of the new musical pieces came from sessions when we were both locked separately in our ways. We talked about the EP’s main direction but we let our imaginations flow as we worked to create the details regarding the album.

So I must temperate my answer, as only a few pieces have been in a kind of locker for a while but for example, a piece such as: The Soulcleaner is a fresh creation, inspired by some bitter and hurtful experiences face to blind vanity of the warm youth.

During the recording process, everything was quiet. There was  some tiny tension between me and Vinc but it seemed normal to us because we deeply love the musical material that we handle. When me or Vinc started to make an incomprehensible manipulation on a musical detail that we already deeply liked in a certain shape, it gave birth to some tensions but I really like working with him.

It was a little bit tormenting when we were faced with the possibility of working with Rob. Like every human, we anxiously shiver facing the unknown, facing this kind of a leap of faith. It was a disagreeable and tormenting moment but by luck, very temporary (and the discomfort wasn’t given by Rob or his performance on our songs but simply as I already said, by our fear facing this decision and its fallout that it could be decisive for Xaon’s future).

Thanks for noticing the similarities between Disillusion (I’m a huge fan of the '04 album: Back to Times of Splendor. It’s a pure ears-crusher, a gleaming jewel) (It's also one of my favorite albums of all time - The Grim Lord) and the all-mighty Solefald (I’m a big fan of every album that they released. As you said, our music is a bit more “crushing” but they know how to make a guitar sound mystical and how to build superb melodies that carry our souls very far away, near the cold cosmic void!)

What was it like working with Bjorn Strid on “Discrowned?” That track really slays and seems to carry melodeath in a new direction. I’m a bit reminded of Blood Stain Child in some sections. 

We weren't thinking about BLOOD STAIN CHILD with this song, but we thank you for the compliment. We've always liked SOILWORK’s music and the powerful aura given by Björn’s voice. Just before meeting Rob, Vinc and me talked a lot about to have a very particular kind of voice on this song (of course, we especially didn’t want to use a golden, well-known name in order to promote our music. I always think that this kind of maneuver is fundamentally childish, pitiful and deserves a vehement, severe and viscid sputum straight to the face! For us, a guest-musician on a track could be only admissible when the band and the guest are some kind of friends (for example, look at the guest performances from Chris Barnes on the GORGUTS album Considered Dead on the tracks "Rottenatomy", "Bodily Corrupted" and "Hematological Allergy." Chris and Luc Lemay are some friends and I suppose this collaboration was friendly teamwork between two friends from two different bands) or if the band aren’t able to produce the effect or the sound that they’re searching and the only way to produce a decent result is to ask for help outside of the band. The case regarding the song "Discrowned" was the latter.

This song was the first that we wrote for this EP and I don’t know why we were very angry and corrupted by some intense feelings of malaise, powerlessness and solitude. We hardly wished to have a powerful and very versatile vocal line on this track. Nothing afflicted or sad or a kind of “boo-hoo” kind of feeling. It was supposed to be just pure violence, a feeling of useless revolt or a heavy and bitter weight on our mind and shoulders. We hadn’t met Rob yet and nobody in our close musical friends were able to give us what we desperately wanted then, so we thought about asking a professional musician to fill this position. (But I don’t remember clearly if it was said more with a half-smile instead of a serious visage).

A few weeks after that, Vinc went to a SOILWORK gig and crossed Speed’s path in an empty corridor. He didn’t hesitate to ask him if he want to scream some sentences in one of our songs and one or two months after, we received the song “Discrowned” not with just a chorus sung by Björn “Speed” Strid, or just a mere verse but the entire song!  He did such wonderful and amazing work with it! Every time I hear this track, I feel extremely honored to have these kinds of vocals on the song.

So have you been working on a full-length as well, or are you planning on playing a few shows first to see how well the material does in front of a live crowd? 

Actually, we’re working on some new stuff, as you can guess. So, Yeah, the next release from Xaon will be a complete album and we have already finished all of the compositions. We’re swimming into our stream of thoughts regarding the arrangement’s possibilities and the capability to maximize the dumping and the implosion of feeling with the adding of some unusual instrument in the realm of Rock’N Roll music.

As the lyricist and the bassist, I dream of a much heavier and  depressing, far darker music with gloomier panoramas conducted by the acoustic instruments (like we did with the cello) but –and it’s very important- without falling on the “gothic” or the “symphonic” style of music. We wish to stay heavy, mean, groovy and brutal as a metal band but with less catchier parts and more darker, complex and suffocating parts. Nevertheless, keep in mind that it’s only a personal wish. Xaon is a trio. When we will work on the draft's new material, we will find some agreement and a fair consensus between all composers. We will probably begin recording this new album around the beginning of 2017. If we –as persons- are still alive.

What are some bands that you guys are digging right now? Any artists you’d recommend we check out? (Besides yourselves, of course.)

Ah! A question about bands. I really like these kind of questions. If you don’t know about these bands just take a look and I promise you won’t be frustrated!

PAYSAGE D’HIVER: A famous Swiss black metal band. Murky, ghastly and cold music. Perfect tunes to die frozen, the eyes bathed by the lofty, white and powerful mountains.

CIRITH UNGOL: Heavy-doom horrific band with a mad and talented bassist and a devilish voice. The ol’ school band of my selection! Take a look (and let’s prefer the opus called: King of the Dead and One Foot in Hell)!

DUX: The French band of this selection. The last opus, Carnations was a huge and massive blast for my ears. A power trio black metal band. It's potent, melodic, tormented and wise music for the listeners that like the tasteful tunes.

FUNERAL FOG: The Canadian-one! You won’t be submerged by the disdain facing these tunes. You will float under what I will present as a profound devotion!

THERGOTHON: Perhaps the Finnish pioneer for funeral doom metal. Only one demo and one full-length, a complete fulfilment and a strangling voyage through obscurity.

A good selection can’t be called as good as it wishes to be if there aren't bands like: PLAGA, SVARTIDAUðI, DARVAZA, BEHERIT, DEATHSPELL OMEGA, HESYCHAST, MGLA and more!

What are some of the things that you guys do when you’re not playing music? Are there any other acts that you play in?

My life is structured by my love for music and my professional activities are near this interest but I like to wander through nature, to write some little stories, to read books about astronomy, mythology, the history of religions, philosophy, medical science, the history of art and I definitely enjoy reading some good novels or stories from writers like Edgar A. Poe, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, Victor Hugo, H.P. Lovecraft, Goethe, Theophile Gautier and Gerard de Nerval.

To answer your next question, we do have some other bands that we still play in. If you like to hear good stuff in the melodic death metal sphere, don’t hesitate to take a look on the French band: BLOODSTORM where our singer Rob does the main vocal lines (http://www.bloodstormofficial.com/), if you like black metal stuff our second guitar player, Guillaume is your man. Don’t hesitate to check: ENOID (https://enoid.bandcamp.com/) and SERPENS LUMINIS (where I’m the lead singer with Guillaume behind his six-strings: https://www.facebook.com/SerpensLuminis/?fref=ts). If you like some rough stuff, I mainly sing in some swiss band: CALCINED (www.calcined.ch) and ERZEBETH DANE (https://www.facebook.com/erzebethdane/?fref=ts)

This is a very promising record and I’m now seeming to recall it after the first time I heard it a little while back. I wish you guys the best of luck, as I really think there’s a potential to go far and further carry the banner for Swedish melodic death metal into a new age!

Thanks a lot for these interesting questions and this interview! Never give up!  Stay totally proud and strong about what you are and became!

Long live Metal!

http://www.xaonmusic.com/

Stench Price - Stench Price (2016)

Considered a “grind revolution” on their official Bandcamp page, this mostly Russian lineup contains several guests in order to make a sort of grind that is pretty much unparalleled to anything that I've ever heard in my life. Considering that I'm really picky with grind, that's a great thing. Featuring members of Escapethecult, Kamlath, Nebesbiesnami, Necrophagist and others, this three-piece is bound for some sort of unknown and bizarre glory that you'll never understand until you've gotten this record in your hands. It's quite short at just a litte under twenty minutes, but considering “The Vitality Slip” manages to play for an entire five minutes, that's a Nobel Prize moment for the genre. The best way to describe an album like this is to take it song by song, and we'll start out with “Living Fumes” which features Danny Lilker of Brutal Truth. The track starts out like black metal, before it teases us with hints of lounge music. Lilker's vocals sound absolutely scathing here and the track pummels before it goes right into elevator music. Guitars are played furiously, almost in a thrashy atmosphere which leads into machine-gun drum explosions, right before bringing us back to an elevator. It makes me think that there's a war inside of a shopping mall, and though people in the mall are fighting off and being devoured by ravenous monsters, there's still one group of people who are just patiently waiting to get to the floor where all the hell is taking place. Hints of solos appear, as well as one massive breakdown. Next we have “Furnaces Burn” which features “Revolting” Rogga Johansson of Paganizer (and several other bands, like the one in quotations.) This one is a little short, but it delivers a fast and heavy approach regardless of a hint of elevator music. They could have done a little better on this one I feel, Rogga deserved a much stronger track. I'm not really familiar with Karin Utomo of High Tension, but she appears on “Pressure” by which there's a video for. Being female, we actually get a little bit of a clean feminine vocal approach in sections, but when she's not doing that, she's tearing your fucking head off. This woman is simply ravenous, but at least she has the good nature to apologize for it. Next we have “4.27.15” which features Matt Phelps of Cynic who is proving his age here, unfortunately. It sounds like Phelps is trying his best Schuldiner impression, with the days of monumental debut Focus long behind him. It almost feels like a punk performance and more or less a common grind track. You wouldn't even know it was a member of Cynic if you hadn't looked on the Bandcamp page.

“The Genocide Machine” features Dave Ingram of Hail Of Bullets, and it more or less seems to back the death metal frontman rather well. His heavy growls give the drudging track just what it needs. There's some definite experimentation within the riffs, but then it flows right into blistering death metal where the performance just feels right. The album ends with what I think is it's best track, featuring an unexpected merit in Child Bite frontman Shawn Knight. I saw Child Bite back in '14 and they didn't really catch me, but I absolutely love this performance. I'm reminded of a cross between Mike Patton and Dave Brockie, which sounds as mind-blowing as you'd expect. The elevator music (ahem) bossa-nova that is featured here, actually works very well too. I'd love for project mastermind Peter Shallmin to make a bossa-nove album as well, as I quite like that kind of music and it's relaxing. I love the fact that he can create complete and total chaos, a veritable shitstorm of unruly fucking hell – but I can really get into these cheery tunes as well. Also, the ending of this one is pretty masterful. I almost feel like Brockie's there and it means a lot. Knight almost channels him right towards the end of this one, and I love it. I'm pretty sure that the former GWAR frontman would have given his blessed flatulence on this project and that makes it well worth checking out. Unless you've got a time machine, you'll have to wait until the end of November for this one. But don't fret folks, as it's definitely worth it for the most part. “The Vitality Slip” is worth the price of admission alone.

(6 Tracks, 18:00)

8/10

Viranesir - Dad's Choking On My Vomit Of His Semen (2016)

Viranesir went from being an obscure act that pressed it's own albums to a band that everyone loves to hate. Who's everyone? Well, how about Facebook and Bandcamp? The band have been kicked off of Facebook (which isn't a big deal as bands make new pages all of the time) but they did get removed from Bandcamp, which is a first for me. I'm sure it happens, but not often. So why am I reviewing these guys? Because this is absurdity, it gets under people's skins and makes them uncomfortable. Checkout the Merdümgiriz website and you can see mastermind Emir Toğrul's writings for yourself, in all of their interesting glory. Keep in mind that Toğrul also has a couple of other bands, and they've all created a new album this year as well – Blliigghhtted, Funeral Of God and Red Bible Black (compilation, but still a new release) all have new material to check out, so if you like this odd release, perhaps you will like those discs as well. Now Viranesir has had a history of explicit album titles, even though debut Fountain Of Uncertainty wasn't all that bad. I never really expected the guy to go this far, but hell – it got them attention and that's the best you can hope for in this industry. Let's see, we have Kill Your Repulsive Child, Shoot On Mom's Corpse, Raping Lesbians For Freedom, Kaos Garden: Burn The Homeless, You Jewish Bastards, Children's Suicide Music ((Ritual of (Love) Is The Key)) and finally, this one. Now most of this shit cracks me up, because I can take a joke and understand black humor. Then you have the Blligghhtted release, Into The Cunt Of The Witch (which really isn't all that bad, to be honest) which carries the theme onto other albums. Though I hope he would kind of keep it to Viranesir, as they've named albums like this in the past. The most odd thing about this record though, is it's name. I don't understand it. I understand what it's supposed to mean, but as an editor I'm confused. Is the semen vomit? Because how does that work? If someone coughs up semen, we don't necessarily call that vomit, like something related to food, blood or bile. I've never even heard the term, “vomit semen” before. So it has me confused. A better title for this might be, Dad's Choking On My Semen While I'm Vomiting On His Dick. I know, I just made that ten times worse and I'm a horrible individual. But as a writer, you have to work with what's presented.

As for the album, it seems to consist of a great deal of oblong keyboard mannerisms which more or less serve as the musical background here. It is not a guitar-laden release, nor does it contain any black metal. Sure, Viranesir might have been black metal in the beginning, but with this one, he decided to go for something of an electronic acid trip with weird squeaky vocals. It almost sounds like he's making fun of American pop music and homoeroticism, in a way that probably “triggered” a lot of writers. Better yet, I'm sure some emailed him back at the Merdümgiriz address and wondered what in the hell they had just been sent. It is certainly abstract, somewhat bizarre. I want to feature this in a print magazine I work for, but because of all the crap regarding the Bandcamp/Social Media situation as well as the title, I wouldn't want to be blacklisted. That's just the way it goes sometimes, so just consider this review to be more or less my article on one of their weirdest records ever to grace my inbox this year. If I want to put this into perspective, and even attempt to give you a proper display of the disc by which you're curious about (or you wouldn't be reading this review) then I could just tell you that the whole thing is like an out of body experience. It feels like you're on heroin or something. I just can't really put this atmosphere into proper form without telling you that it's demented. This isn't the kind of music that you play when you're looking to feel happy, it is instead a sort of record where it feels like something very wrong is occurring. If you play this in the background of well, I mean – I really don't even want to describe the scene in which a track like closer “Bourgeois Beleaguered II” would appear, but I'm sure that you can find such situations that may very well be going on from various conspiracy pages by which to decorate such unpleasant music. I don't believe that this is a bad record, it's just exceedingly uncomfortable. It feels like Toğrul has gone more into realms of horror than black metal here, which is great as Blliigghhtted more or less captures the early black metal element of this band. There's nothing wrong with changing hats and adapting new personalities and I do wish Toğrul the best on this one. I really don't know what that means as a whole considering everything that has happened, but perhaps these decisions gave the project a bit of an image booster and he needed it. 

I honestly don't care for many of the high-pitched squeals as you might expect from my rather explicit thoughts on their usage in other records, but here it comes off as part of the atmosphere. Conceptually it's just a bunch of weird keyboard and drum compositions, with all sorts of vocal iterations that almost seem to parody DSBM. Yet strangely enough, it all works and brings with it the sort of atmosphere that feels much creepier than several of the horror-influenced soundscapes that I receive on a montly basis from various bands and labels. Considering there is no Bandcamp page for this recording, you should be able to find it on the Merdümgiriz site as well as the writings I mentioned earlier. I do have my own personal opinion on the entire Viranesir image, but I'll actually hold my tongue on this one, as I have an inkling of what is going on here and would rather keep that to myself. At any rate, bands like this who are out to upset the status quo and really distort the minds of common individuals are definite winners in my book. Maybe they'll call their next one Licking Out The Excrement From Christ's Asshole in order to continue on with this grotesque and uncomforting imagery. As for the record itself? It'll include accordions and xylophones. Why not?

(7 Tracks, 37:00)

8/10

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