Tag Archives: metalcore

Album Review – No Sin Evades His Gaze / Age Of Sedation (2014)

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These young British guys and their sharp instruments keep the fire of heavy music alive with huge doses of professionalism, brutality and progressiveness.

Rating4

Album Art - 1500 x 1500Like French chemist Antoine Lavoisier said once with his law of conservation of mass, “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.” That can be said about the music by Metalcore/Groove Metal band No Sin Evades His Gaze who, influenced by bands such as Pantera, Lamb Of God and Machine Head, blended elements from Metalcore, Death Metal and Groove Metal in a very professional way, sounding very contemporary and, above all, very technical, melodic and progressive.

It’s amazing how such young guys, all in their early or mid-twenties (and some not even in their twenties yet), were capable of crafting 100% cohesive and honest heavy music like if they have been together on the road for years in a row. This new five-piece metal band, founded in 2013 by vocalist James Denton and with members hailing from London, Blackpool and Scotland in the UK, has just released their debut album, Age Of Sedation, and let me tell you it’s an awesome mix of brutality and melody perfect for fans of modern metal music.

Right after the short but strong intro A Crack In The Looking Glass, where it’s noticeable the band is composed by young members (only young people can write, say or sing words such as “They’re gonna call you weird… They’re gonna call you eccentric…”), we already have one of the top moments of the album, the title-track Age Of Sedation.  It’s polished and professional extreme metal, with its guitar lines conducting the song enhanced by its heavy drumming and all background effects, and of course the excellent guttural vocals by James. The following song, Motionless In Obedience, is a very good choice for fans of extreme music with an apocalyptic touch, getting very progressive halfway through it due to its technical instrumental, and providing the listener the first dosage of clean vocals by drummer Theo Harvey.

Filth is a much heavier tune than its predecessors, perfect for headbanging, with highlights to the great job done by both guitarists Kevin Pearson and Dan Thornton and to the Industrial Metal elements added to the song, similar to what Fear Factory usually do in their music, followed by the nice Metalcore vibe in Roll Up The Royalty, where its very cohesive instrumental gives it a truly badass atmosphere. Another one of my favorite moments in Age Of Sedation is the violent and apocalyptic Debris, with Theo smashing his drums while Matthew “Moat” Lowe shows no mercy for his bass (and you can actually listen to each note from it), while The Cycle Resets focuses on a more contemporary American Metalcore blended with Industrial Metal, with highlights to the awesome vocal performance by James and its totally melodic and catchy riffs.

No Sin Evades His Gaze Promo photo 2014The last part of the album begins with Biometric Alchemy, which could be portrayed as a darker version of what Slipknot do sometimes, mainly due to its deep guttural vocals, followed by The Guillotine Blade: as sharp as a real guillotine blade, the band offers us more atmospheric chaos full of solid riffs, rhythmic breaks and a melancholic ending. And to close the album the band chose their longest and most progressive song, Affinity, with elements from Metalcore, Melodic Death Metal and even Nu Metal, sounding pretty much like three or four songs in one for the delight of fans of complex heavy music.

As aforementioned, the excellent Age Of Sedation, which is available at the No Sin Evades His Gaze’s official BandCamp page, Amazon, iTunes and many other locations, might not be 100% original (what is today, anyway?), but it’s as fresh and creative as possible, thanks to an awesome job done by all band members with their refined techniques. Let’s say that they’re just adapting what Lavoisier discovered in a distant past, but instead of “mass” they’re supporting the conservation of good heavy music.

Best moments of the album: Age Of Sedation, Filth and Debris.

Worst moments of the album: Biometric Alchemy.

Released in 2014 Independent

Track listing
1. A Crack In The Looking Glass 0:51
2. Age Of Sedation 2:49
3. Motionless In Obedience 3:39
4. Filth 4:06
5. Roll Up The Royalty 3:50
6. Debris 2:54
7. The Cycle Resets 3:52
8. Biometric Alchemy 4:38
9. The Guillotine Blade 3:40
10. Affinity 6:00

Band members
James Denton – vocals
Kevin Pearson – guitars
Dan Thornton – guitars
Matthew “Moat” Lowe – bass
Theo Harvey – drums, clean vocals

Album Review – Mandatory / Catharsis (2014)

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A good option for fans of Melodic Death Metal who enjoy European harmony blended with North American violence.

Rating5

MANDATORY_Catharsis_Cover_HQAustrian Melodic Death Metal band Mandatory is one of those cases where harmony and brutality walk hand in hand with each other, creating an electrifying sound perfect for live performances, which by the way helped this Linz-based quintet win the International Live Award in 2011 in Austria. Now with Catharsis, the band’s second full-length album, those guys deliver a more melodic and technical Death Metal than their previous releases without sounding too commercial or generic.

Although Catharsis is quite different from the band’s 2009 debut album Carbon Black, it’s still very technical and heavy, recommended for both fans of Melodic Death Metal and the more modern heavy music from North America. Moreover, do not expect to listen to old school Death or Thrash Metal, as the sounding in the whole album is very polished and even progressive depending on the song, similar to what bands such as Arch Enemy are doing today. You can indeed expect lots of shredding, guttural and clean vocals mixed, and fast and technical blast beats.

The opening track, End of Watch, can be summarized as pure European Melodic Death Metal with hints of American Metalcore, with its double bass boosting the very melodic guttural vocals. Then we have Act I: Tragedy, the first of three “acts” (or whatever the band wanted those to be) where its excellent instrumental, clean vocals and motivational lyrics (“Embrace the Light within / Shatter the Sky / Your pain and misery / Will purify your mind”) give a good balance to the song; and the slower but heavier To the Streets, a modern Thrash Metal tune the likes of contemporary Metallica and A7X, with some intense riffs and an interesting guitar solo perfect for some headbanging.

Mandatory_2012_1500_webEmperor has the most Metalcore rhythm of all songs, especially its guitar duos, with highlights to its very polished production (enhancing the sounding of all instruments) and the political message in its lyrics (“You aren’t machines / You are not chained / To these ambassadors / Of hatred fear and despise”); while the very enjoyable Act II: Catharsis begins with an intense low riff before turning into fast Melodic Death Metal. It even flirts with progressive metal due to all its breaks, variations and the excellent work done by both guitarists Chris Hörmann and Manuel “Mani” Rohrauer.

Shadowmaker is another good melodic and very progressive tune, albeit not as heavy as the rest of the album, with its guitar solos reminding me of some old stuff done by Dream Theater; followed by For the World to See, which gets back to Melodic Death Metal with its clean vocals being once again a nice touch to the overall musicality. Finally, we have Act III: Purification, the last of the three “acts”, another progressive/melodic heavy track with uprising lyrics (“Rise Up! / Liberate your wisdom / Rise Up! / Let the storm break loose”), and closing the album we have Blueprint, the most Thrash/Death Metal track of all with highlights to its technical and professional instrumental and the nice sound effects on the background. In addition, it might only be a coincidence, but the three “acts” (add also “End of Watch” to this list) are the best songs of the album by far in my opinion.

You can purchase Catharsis at Mandatory’s official BandCamp page, where the album comes as a special edition with lots of extra stuff, or also at Amazon, iTunes and other online stores. Go for it if you’re a fan of the most modern type of Melodic Death Metal available in the market, uniting melody, violence and fun in heavy music.

Best moments of the album: End of Watch, Act I: Tragedy, Act II: Catharsis and Act III: Purification.

Worst moments of the album: To the Streets and For the World to See.

Released in 2014 Independent

Track listing
1. End of Watch 3:53
2. Act I: Tragedy 4:15
3. To the Streets 6:53
4. Emperor 5:08
5. Act II: Catharsis 6:53
6. Shadowmaker 4:36
7. For the World to See 5:45
8. Act III: Purification 5:18
9. Blueprint 3:51

Band members
Markus Hundsberger – vocals
Chris Hörmann – guitars, backing vocals
Manuel “Mani” Rohrauer – guitars, backing vocals
Leo Wolfmayr – bass
Mike Pfaffenhuemer – drums, clean vocals

Metal Chick of the Month – Alissa White-Gluz

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This is War Eternal, Alissa!

In order to properly celebrate the first awesome year of The Headbanging Moose, no one would have been a better choice for our Metal Chick of the Month than this Canadian girl. She’s at the same time the Beauty AND the Beast, an inspiration to many women all around the world, and her convictions and talent are truly taking her to stardom. From the beautiful city of Montreal, Quebec, here comes Alissa White-Gluz, founder and former lead singer of Canadian Metalcore band The Agonist, and currently the frontwoman of Swedish Melodic Death Metal icons Arch Enemy.

This vegan straight-edge kick-ass Québécois was born on July 31, 1985, and although she claims she has never taken any singing lessons her voice has become really powerful and versatile throughout the years, elevating her status as one of the most influential Heavy Metal female singers of the past decade, even leading to some comparisons with the one and only Angela Gossow. Well, those comparisons don’t seem to have been in vain, because on March 17, 2014, she was chosen to be the replacement for Angela herself and became the voice of Arch Enemy. In Alissa’s own words, “I am very honored and happy to announce a new chapter in my life and musical career beginning now; I have joined forces with one of my all-time favorite and globally respected bands, ARCH ENEMY. ‘Wages of Sin’ was the first metal album I ever bought, and it was love at first listen. It is not often that you get a phone call from your favorite band asking you to join! I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such amazingly talented musicians whom I also consider great friends. I look forward to being able to write and perform at a whole new level now with ARCH ENEMY! Music is forever, metal is limitless and this is only the beginning!”

Arch Enemy have recently released their first album with Alissa on vocals, entitled War Eternal, but there was a lot more of our Heavy Metal diva prior to that. She founded The Agonist back in 2004 with guitarist Danny Marino and bassist Chris Kells (when the band was still known as The Tempest), and recorded three excellent full-length albums and one EP with them: Once Only Imagined (2007), Lullabies for the Dormant Mind (2009), The Escape EP (2011), and Prisoners (2012), with Lullabies for the Dormant Mind being in my opinion their best album in terms of musicality, lyrics and creativity. In regards to Alissa’s performance in all The Agonist albums, she was always so electrifying and full of energy that it’s impossible to not get completely mesmerized by her voice and moves, as you can easily see in their official videos for Thank You, Pain, …And Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep, and Panophobia. By the way, I consider the video for Thank You, Pain, with its outstanding production, good storyline and, of course, Alissa kickin’ ass, one of the most professional and beautiful videos I’ve seen in a long time.

Besides her work with The Agonist, Alissa has also been featured as a guest musician in the following albums: Canadian Folk/Melodic Death Metal band Blackguard’s Profugus Mortis,  Canadian Melodic Black/Death Metal band Erimha’s Irkalla, Canadian Industrial Death Metal band Synastry’s Blind Eyes Bleed, American Melodic Power Metal band Kamelot’s Silverthorn and also in the single Sacrimony (which the amazing official video can be seen here), and more recently in Dutch Symphonic Metal band Delain’s The Human Contradiction. She was also a live guest singer during Kamelot’s recent 2011/2012 tours, as well as, along with Swedish singer Elize Ryd (Amaranth), replaced Anette Olzon while she was sick for a one-time Nightwish concert in Denver on September 28, 2012. An interview with both artists talking about that experience can be seen here and on Nightwish’s Showtime, Storytime (DVD), on the documentary footage section.

Also, in 2006 Alissa appeared on Canadian Idol singing a cover of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and in January 2012 she was featured as a coach on an episode of MTV’s Made. I don’t know if these can be considered part of her music career, as those TV shows are useless and do not bring any real benefits to real musicians, but anyway she was there and it was an alternative way for her to be exposed to different audiences that are not really into Heavy Metal.

While Alissa was with The Agonist, she toured the world with many different famous bands such as Epica, Kamelot, Sonata Arctica and Danzig, which is very demanding and time consuming, and now with Arch Enemy the frequency and intensity of world tours have just increased, making her eating habits and exercising more than essential for a professional and powerful onstage performance. That’s one of the reasons why she maintains a strong exercise routine, working out between 5 and 6 times a week, especially to strengthen her muscles. Alissa mentioned she loves working out, which is in her opinion the best remedy for anxiety, depression, self-esteem issues etc., and it’s one of the things that make her feel a happier and healthier person. I agree with her 100%, as I also love working out and feel the same results as she does, and also because The Agonist and Arch Enemy are always in my workout playlist.

Another important part of her life is her veganism, which according to Alissa herself is her most powerful source of energy and health. Although she was a vegetarian all her life, she decided to become a vegan when she was a teenager and carry that flag forever more, always mentioning that her family has been a huge inspiration for her. “My parents, along with my brother and sister, are vegetarians. I wasn’t raised in any way where I was forced to be a vegetarian too. I always had the choice. My mom would say, ‘I don’t eat the stuff, so I won’t cook it, but if you want to eat it, you can. Let me tell you why I don’t eat it.’ So she was open about it.”, she said. “From a young age, I learned what a non-vegetarian diet entails. I made the decision early on that I was going to stick to the lifestyle. It’s easier to stick with something like that than change it, if you’ve always done it. I’m grateful that my parents were open-minded with me.”

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In regards to her personal life, Alissa has mentioned during some interviews that among her favorite bands and musicians are Devin Townsend, Gwen Stefani, Muse, and, of course, Arch Enemy. Hence, it’s always interesting to see non-Metal bands or artists among the playlists of Heavy Metal icons (see other examples here and here), which makes us feel less “guilty” when singing any songs that are currently part of the top 40 list. Among her favorite places she has already traveled to, we have Japan, Peru and Austria, and in terms of movies she said her favorite one is still The Little Mermaid, which is by the way the reason why she started singing. I just don’t remember Ariel or Sebastian doing any guttural during the movie, but that’s just a minor detail, right? Moreover, our Heavy Metal goddess has been selected multiple times as one of “the hottest chicks in metal” by Revolver Magazine. Why am I not surprised at all with that?

Last but not least, Alissa is not only an animal lover (I believe she has two rescued kitties at home), but beyond that she’s an important animal rights activist just as her idol Angela Gossow, having already received an award from peta2 for her work in an international campaign advocating against the hunting of Canadian seals. Honestly, that’s for me her biggest achievement in life, even more important than her contribution to heavy music, and something she’s probably very proud of.

She mentioned in some interviews that she’s been active with a lot of different organizations helping kids, third world countries and animals, but that her true passion is in animal rights. She also said she started doing fundraising for peta2 and WWF when she was still in high school, and that the partnership between peta2 and her started when they used some stock footage in The Agonist’s first music video, Business Suits and Combat Boots. Since then the organization and Alissa have been working together to promote veganism and fight against animal cruelty as much as possible through different campaigns, protests, lectures, and many other activities. So don’t waste your time, go support peta2, get involved, do something good for this fuckin’ world, and you might end up meeting Alissa somewhere, an amazing person and one of the best frontwoman of the recent history of Heavy Metal. How about that?

Alissa White-Gluz’s Official Facebook page
Alissa White-Gluz’s Official Twitter

““The biggest thing for me is animal rights. That’s the number one factor that sort of means everything in my life, more than music or anything else. I think it’s a huge problem, and I think it’s refreshing to meet people, now and then, that actually do care about their impact on the planet, and not just care about themselves.” – Alissa White-Gluz

Album Review – WhiteNoise / The Herd EP (2014)

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Searching for an interesting mix of Rock N’ Roll, Metalcore and Hard Rock? This cool Israeli band might have exactly what you need.

Rating5

whitenoise_the herdTheir official Facebook page states they’re a Hardcore Rock N’ Roll band from Tel-Aviv, Israel, formed in 2004 by four childhood friends, all children to immigrants who moved from Soviet Russia to Israel in the early 90’s. That multicultural mixture alone is already enough to confirm how difficult it is to label the music by Israeli band WhiteNoise, but it’s when you start listening to their new EP entitled The Herd that things will get even more confusing (in the best way possible, of course).

Although it might seem at first glance that there’s nothing new in the music by WhiteNoise, their unique crossover of many different heavy music genres such as Hardcore, Rock N’ Roll, Hard Rock, Death Metal, Metalcore and many others stands out and turns their musicality into something very entertaining for all types of metal fans. It’s almost as if they tried to add all their influences and personal experiences at the same time into their music, a bold move that actually ended up working for them.

whitenoiseThe Herd consists of three professional and honest tracks, with a high level of energy flowing throughout its entirety. The first one, 4 AM, is the best of all with a nice medley of Hard Rock, Glam Rock and Metalcore, with highlights to its melodious guitar lines and fun powerful screams by lead singer Yula. You can even check a live version of it at the D2O festival in Russia in 2013 by clicking HERE. The other two are Between The Lanes, a song that flirts with Thrash Metal (especially its chorus), with an inspired guitar solo full of feeling, and Near Life Experience, a modern American Thrash Metal/Metalcore tune where drummer Vladi fires up the song with his outstanding performance.

Lastly, the album art showing an evil skeleton dressed up as a wolf and his herd of demonic sheep is very artistic and old school, representing in a fun way everything the band wants to tell us with their music and corroborating their professionalism and passion for heavy music. So let’s show our support to WhiteNoise by checking their official SoundCloud, YouTube or BandCamp pages for more details about the band, their previous and new releases, and of course by purchasing their music. When heavy music is full of energy and creativity like this, it truly deserves our appreciation.

Best moments of the album: 4 AM.

Worst moments of the album: Let’s wait for a full-length album to do that, right?

Released in 2014 Independent

Track listing
1. 4 AM 3:20
2. Between The Lanes 3:15
3. Near Life Experience 3:27

Band members
Yura B. – vocals
Max G. – guitar
Greg P. – bass, vocals
Vladi A. – drums

Album Review – Octainium / Suffer The Clock (2014)

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These South African metalheads bring us a vibrant Metalcore album full of heavy riffs, violent lyrics and lots of melody.

Rating4

Album Front CoverIt’s time to travel to the “Mother Continent”, more specifically to Centurion, in South Africa, an area located about 20 minutes from the city of Pretoria, to enjoy the music offered to us all by South African Metalcore band Octainium in their new album, Suffer The Clock, a very interesting mix of violence, harmony and melody tailored for all guys and girls that are fans of a more modern version of heavy music.

Octainium might be highly influenced by bands like Killswitch Engage, Lamb Of God and Hatebreed, but their music is not limited to what those bands do only. Although labeled as a Metalcore band, their music is much broader that than, as those guys incorporate lots of elements from more brutal genres such as Thrash Metal and Melodic Death Metal, and sometimes even traditional Hard Rock from the 80’s.

The excellent mix of Death Metal and Metalcore present in the song that kicks off the album, The Writing’s on the Wall, perfectly exemplifies what I’m trying to say in regards to the range of Octainium’s music, with highlights to the awesome deep guttural vocals blended with melodic clean vocals and riffs as heavy as hell. Moreover, the polished production allows us to clearly listen to all instruments making the overall experience even better, which can also be noticed in Dethrone, a song that gains a lot of strength due to all its elements from Melodic Death Metal bands such as Arch Enemy and In Flames, the excellent job done by drummer Gerhard Booysen (which I’m sure will inspire you for some good headbanging) and its violent lyrics (“I believe the time has come to fight back / So are you man enough? / Are you up for the task?”).

Holier Than Thou is even heavier than the previous two tracks, especially the vocals, which sound truly furious here and lead all the spiteful brutality in the song, while Grist To the Mill, which has Scott Wareham (HOKUM) as a guest musician, is pure Metalcore with a good balance of guttural and clean vocals again. Then we have the title-track, Suffer The Clock, a song that talks about how you must take control of your life before it’s too late (“Free your senses, just for a moment / So light your candle and watch it burn!”), with a rhythm a lot faster than all previous songs and highly recommended for circle pits, followed by another one of the top moments of the album, Skeletons, where the addition of the beautiful female voice by guest vocalist Alicia van Wyk makes the entire song even more melodic and pleasant.

PosterAnd there’s still a lot more to come: in Another Day, Another Death, pay attention to the very technical and melodic guitar lines, which truly elevate the overall quality of the song, while in Ineptocracy the focus is on the strong lyrics about the current political, social and economic state of South Africa. What’s Your Poison? is a good heavy song but less inspired than the others, despite its interesting (but really  short) acoustic part in the middle, and in The Devil Take The Hindmost the band flirts once again with Melodic Death Metal, with guest vocalist Andrew Duggan (Cutting Jade) giving the song an amazing Hard Rock sonority. Would I be exaggerating if I said this song could easily become a radio hit?

The last two songs in Suffer The Clock are If The Shoe Fits, which riffs remind me of some of the recent songs by Trivium, and Vs. The World, another song that focus heavily on strong riffs and melodic vocal lines, closing the album on a high note. Unfortunately there isn’t a link available yet with any of the songs from Suffer The Clock, but you can keep checking the band’s official Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube, ReverbNation and SoundCloud for news and other information about their new album. Well, if you check their profile you’ll see they’re absolutely crazy for Jägermeister, which is a really good sign of how thrilling their music is. Think about it, have you ever seen a band or musician that loves having shots and shots of that awesome German digestif playing lounge or elevator music?

Best moments of the album: The Writing’s on the Wall, Holier Than Thou and Skeletons.

Worst moments of the album: What’s Your Poison? and If The Shoe Fits.

Released in 2014 Independent

Track listing
1. The Writing’s on the Wall 3:30
2. Dethrone 4:58
3. Holier Than Thou 3:55
4. Grist To the Mill (feat. Scott Wareham) 3:17
5. Suffer The Clock 3:48
6. Skeletons (feat. Alicia van Wyk) 3:33
7. Another Day, Another Death 4:04
8. Ineptocracy 5:04
9. What’s Your Poison? 5:02
10. The Devil Take The Hindmost (feat. Andrew Duggan) 3:29
11. If The Shoe Fits 3:43
12. Vs. The World 4:40

Band members
Maritz Booysen – vocals
Kyle “Sikes” van Wyk – guitars
Sven Anderson – guitars
Arno Grundling – bass
Gerhard Booysen – drums

Album Review – Arch Enemy / War Eternal (2014)

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More melodic than ever, less brutal than usual: this is the new album from one of the most important Swedish bands of all time. But isn’t their music getting too melodic to the point it fails to deliver?

Rating5

CoverWhen Swedish Melodic Death Metal icons Arch Enemy released a statement earlier this year about the unparalleled and irreplaceable diva Angela Gossow stepping down as the lead singer of the band to become their business manager, I must say I was truly shocked, not to mention I felt really worried about the future of one of my favorite bands from the past decade. However, when they announced the also amazing Alissa White-Gluz (from Canadian Melodic Death Metal/Metalcore band The Agonist) as her replacement, I knew the band was going to be in very good hands, which is proven by the good War Eternal, their ninth studio album and, more important than that, the beginning of a new phase in their extensive history.

Another very significant change in the band was the departure (for the second time) of Michael’s brother, the superb guitarist Chris Amott, replaced by American guitarist Nick Cordle in 2012, because although Nick has been with the band for two years now, this is his first studio album with them. I’m a huge fan of the Amott brothers playing together, and again I was a worried about the final result in War Eternal. Guess what? Once again I was “happily wrong”, as Mr. Cordle showcases an excellent performance throughout the whole album. So this means there’s nothing wrong in War Eternal? Well, let’s say the album is far from being a failure, but it has lots of highs and lows which you’ll be able to notice as soon as you take your first listen to it.

War Eternal kicks off with the interesting intro Tempore Nihil Sanat (Prelude in F minor), which is the Latin for “Time Heals Nothing”, before the band strikes the listener with the reverberating havoc named Never Forgive, Never Forget. This song is way better than I expected, especially after listening to the singles released earlier this year: this is the true Melodic Death Metal we learned to love from Arch Enemy, with the always bestial riffs and solos from Mr. Michael Amott and a totally inspired Daniel Erlandsson pounding his drums. On the other hand, War Eternal shows us a more contemporary Arch Enemy, which means less brutal and more melodic than ever. Moreover, the lyrics and chorus are annoyingly cheesy (“Try to tell you what to do / They love to have control of you / Back against the wall / In danger of losing it all / Search deep inside / Remember who you are”), which is kind of the same issue found in Khaos Legions, but thanks to its traditional riffs and Alissa’s excellent performance the song is not a complete disaster.

The following track, As the Pages Burn, is the Arch Enemy most fans want for sure: it is A LOT better than “War Eternal” in terms of rhythm, lyrics and creativity, with highlights to the beautiful solos by Michael and Nick at the end; while No More Regrets is the perfect example of how Michael Amott masters the art of starting songs with quick and efficient guitar solos, and by here you’ll be able to notice Alissa won’t use her clean vocals in Arch Enemy, at least not in this album, which in my opinion is completely understandable, expected and correct. Although I’m also a fan of The Agonist, simply remember the band here is and will always be Arch Enemy.

Then we have the biggest disappointment of the entire album, the unbearable You Will Know My Name, a song that cannot be considered Arch Enemy, but a totally disposable track that sounds like a rip-off of “No Gods, No Masters” with less intensity and horrible lyrics. Fortunately, after a traditional instrumental bridge called Graveyard of Dreams, the band gets back on track with the good Stolen Life, a song that reminds me of the musicality from their last two albums, especially its heavy groove, and the even better Time Is Black, with an excellent start, lots of shredding and some keyboard parts, sounding like some of their songs from Doomsday Machine.

arch enemyThe last part of the album is a music rollercoaster that starts with On and On, which despite its very cohesive sonority, lacks a lot of creativity and ends up falling flat; Avalanche, a good song with more keyboards and quick but awesome guitar solos, which should sound a lot better if played live; and the excellent Down to Nothing, where Daniel Erlandsson is kickin’ fuckin’ ass one more time. In addition, the bad chorus prevents it from being really awesome, but it’s one of the best songs of the album anyway (especially the guitar solos). Michael & Co. still have time for the instrumental Not Long for This World, a very traditional way to end an Arch Enemy album.

One might ask why I gave it only a 3.0 if I said so many good things about the album. Well, there are two main issues for me in War Eternal, which I do not expect everyone to agree 100% but at least acknowledge them: first of all, the lyrical themes are too cheesy and shallow again. Where’s all that obscurity and violence from their old records? And secondly, although some of the songs sound very strong, there isn’t a single one with that “wow factor” found in masterpieces such as “Enemy Within”, “Nemesis”, “Diva Satanica” or “I Am Legend/Out for Blood”. It’s not Alissa’s or Nick’s fault, though, it’s the lack of brutality that bothers me in War Eternal, not to mention the fact that the whole album seems to have been done a lot faster than it should, which probably hampered more in-depth and complex compositions.

Not only that, it looks like the main goal with their two official videos so far has been to literally showcase Alissa’s physical attributes to the fans instead of focusing on the music, as they were by far the worst songs of the whole album. Alissa is extremely hot, but I’m pretty sure all Arch Enemy fans prefer a more rampant musicality than fancy music videos. At least the excellent artwork for the album, created by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu, lives up to Arch Enemy’s legacy.

To sum up, War Eternal is good, but not memorable, and I don’t believe that’s because Alissa is new to the band: she’s a superb singer and performer, and Arch Enemy couldn’t have found a better person to replace Angela. As I said a couple of times in this same review, it’s the extremely melodic (and sometimes too commercial) path the band has chosen to take that concerns me. For instance, I personally consider Johan Liiva just an average vocalist, but the music Arch Enemy used to play with him was so much more intense that lots of fans still miss him nowadays, even after the outstanding work done by Angela. I’ll keep loving Arch Enemy and headbanging to their music as always, but unfortunately most of the songs from War Eternal won’t be missed on my personal playlist in a couple of months.

Best moments of the album: Never Forgive, Never Forget, As the Pages Burn and Down to Nothing.

Worst moments of the album: War Eternal, You Will Know My Name and On and On.

Released in 2014 Century Media

Track listing
1. Tempore Nihil Sanat (Prelude in F minor) 1:12
2. Never Forgive, Never Forget 3:43
3. War Eternal 4:16
4. As the Pages Burn 4:01
5. No More Regrets 4:05
6. You Will Know My Name 4:37
7. Graveyard of Dreams (Instrumental) 1:10
8. Stolen Life 2:58
9. Time Is Black 5:23
10. On and On 4:04
11. Avalanche 4:38
12. Down to Nothing 3:47
13. Not Long for This World (Instrumental) 3:29

Band members
Alissa White-Gluz – vocals
Michael Amott – lead guitars
Nick Cordle – lead guitars
Sharlee D’Angelo – bass
Daniel Erlandsson – drums

Metal Chick of the Month – Rachel Aspe

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La femme Nikita? Non, la femme Rachel.

Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? These initial French words have a good reason to be here: la belle femme Rachel Aspe, vocalist of the Heavy Metal/Hardcore band Eths from Marseille, France,  is our metal babe this month. This beautiful girl was born on June 24, 1988, in the city of Grasse, France, about 1,000km from Paris, but she conquered the world after singing Swiss Industrial/Groove Metal band Sybreed‘s Emma-0 on the French TV show “Incroyable Talent” in November 2012, when the video of her performance went viral.

This is the audio she sent to the TV show before being selected to sing it live on TV, and as you will be able to notice her performance was more than just awesome: her guttural vocals are as potent as the world-renowned frontwomen Angela Gossow (ex-Arch Enemy) and Alissa White-Gluz (ex-The Agonist, Arch Enemy), even never taking any lessons on how to do guttural singing. By the way, it always amazes me how ignorant and stupid those so-called “music experts” that judge the participants at any TV show like “American Idol” are: why do they make those faces of disbelief or looks of disapproval when they see a girl singing like Rachel Aspe? Honestly, I cannot believe that they don’t really know at least who Angela Gossow is, or that they don’t know how important, powerful and admired the female guttural in the world of heavy music is. That’s simply ridiculous.

Getting back to Rachel, she has mentioned in several interviews that it had always been her goal to be part of a band, and that this was one of the main reasons she went to that TV show. She had a job at a day nursery at that time and it was hard to find some proper time to work on her vocals, but she managed to do it really quickly in order to have the best possible performance on the show, which was broadcasted just a little time after Candice Clot left Eths. And guess what? Rachel was recruited by the other members of Eths to replace Candice, and then she could finally fulfill her dream. If this is not the perfect mix of hard work, some good luck and being embraced by the wings of destiny, I really don’t know what is.

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Rachel mentioned in one of her interviews that she discovered guttural vocals when she was a teenager, when she used to listen to punk rock and later to more brutal bands. She said that screaming was like a way to escape from her personal problems and it quickly became a “drug” for her. Regarding her music influences, the first singers she listened to were Max Cavalera (Soulfly, ex-Sepultura) and Corey Talor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), who helped her choose guttural as her type of singing, and although she’s a huge fan of Angela Gossow and loves her voice, she said the former frontwoman of Arch Enemy did not influence her way of singing.

As previously mentioned, she never took lessons and searched alone how to do guttural singing, but as with Eths she has to sing clean vocal parts too, she has been receiving lessons from professor Pierre Rodriguez. Another interesting fact about Rachel is the fact that she never thought about singing in French in a band (her vocal covers were almost always in English), but she really appreciates singing in her mother tongue with Eths now.

Rachel’s first studio work with Eths was the excellent EP Ex Umbra In Solem, launched in March this year. The EP contains a brand new song (the title-track Ex Umbra In Solem), three classic tracks of the band recorded live in October 2013 in Paris (Samantha, Bulimiarexia and Crucifère), and three songs from their album III re-recorded with Rachel on vocals (Voragine, Harmaguedon and Proserpina). Prior to joining Eths, Rachel was a member of French Melodic Death Metal band Dividead for a short period of time in 2012, and recorded the vocals for the song Fireblast by French Symphonic Power Metal band Kerion also in 2012.

With respect to her taste for music, mademoiselle Rachel proves us all she’s a true metalhead: her favorite artists include Heavy Metal icons such as Eths, Nightwish, Asking Alexandria and Deftones, and lesser-known but heavy as hell bands like Sybreed, Shai Hulud, Filter, Butterfly Explosion and Obscura. And last but not least, she also said she’s crazy about children and about her leopard geckos. Well, I would love to see her singing a “lullaby” to some kids, and I wasn’t expecting her to have any “cute” pets at all based on her singing style. Let those generic animals to the tedious participants from those annoying TV singing contests, while the wild Rachel and her fun lizards keep on rockin’ our world.

Rachel Aspe’s Official Facebook page
Rachel Aspe’s Official Twitter
Rachel Aspe’s Official YouTube channel

“I’m really proud to be a part of Eths. I’ve been a fan of the band for many years, and it’s a great honor for me to sing songs I have been listening to for such a long time.” – Rachel Aspe

Album Review – Voice of Ruin / Morning Wood (2014)

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Time to have fun, bang your heads and get into circle pits with some crazy motherfuckin’ Death Metal “farmers” from Switzerland.

Rating4

VOR-MorningWoodAccording to the most reliable source of information in the world, the always detailed and precise Wikipedia, morning wood is “an informal term referring to the phenomenon of nocturnal penile tumescence (erection) during and immediately following sleep.” However, the “morning wood” I’m about to discuss here won’t probably have that effect on you, but instead some headbanging, beer drinking and an urge to get into violent circle pits. I’m talking about the new album by Swiss Death Metal band Voice of Ruin, affectionately called Morning Wood, the second in their career.

This crazy Nyon-based band was born in 2008 and since then have spread their explicit heavy music all over the world, releasing an EP named The Crash in 2009 and their self-titled debut album Voice of Ruin in 2011, leading them to share the stage which big names such as Entombed, Tankard, Fleshgod Apocalypse and The Black Dahlia Murder. Let’s say the whole idea behind Voice of Ruin is quite similar to what American Hard Rock band Steel Panther do, but taking it to the next level of heavy music, which is speeding up things a little more and using guttural vocals instead of high-pitched screams. In other words, they replaced that sexist Hair Metal for a more brutal Death Metal/Metalcore, or as Voice of Run say about themselves, “Horny Farmer Metal”.

But it’s when the intro Welcome To The Stud Farm starts that you realize the band is far from being a joke:  Voice of Ruin play a very professional and melodic Death Metal, with a sonority similar to bands like Arch Enemy and Carcass, which can also be verified with the first actual song of the album, Party Hard. Let the party begin with this fuckin’ heavy song and its smashing drums and melodic riffs in the background, while singer Randy Bull screams lots of “beautiful” words! However, things get even better (and heavier) with their tribute to the greatest anti-hero of all time, Machete Cortez. The excellent song Through The Eyes Of Machete is a fuckin’ furious track with more fast drumming and even some Black Metal moments, with highlights to the totally funny lyrics full of poetic moments such as “Even Steven Seagal can’t beat him at this game / Don’t hire a hitman: no one will ever hurt this name”. Check their official lyric video for it below and you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about.

The farm party goes on with Day Of Rage, a nice mix of modern American Thrash and Death Metal (with the lyrics this time having a regular message); The Rise Of Nothing, with its Melodic Death Metal riffs and totally “meaningful” lyrics; the title-track Morning Wood, a very Metalcore track, especially due to the clean vocals, with excellent instrumental; and another top moment of the entire album, the awesome Viols Désinvoltes:  not only the entire song is sung in French, which adds an extra touch of energy to it, but the excellent job done with the guitars by Nils Bag and Tony Cock is way above average.

VOR_picture_webThe following track, Cock’n Bulls, has a pretty heavy sonority with good riffs and guitar solos, and a very “romantic” music video tailored for the whole family, while the excellent instrumental Today Will End sounds very similar to what Arch Enemy enjoys doing and really pumps the listener up to the fuckin’ heavy and amazing Sex For Free, with its French and English lyrics and great chorus. This is a song that surely proves those farmers were born for playing Heavy Metal instead of just milking some cows in Switzerland.

Finally, we have what can be considered the band’s “circle pit anthem”, Big Dick, with riffs similar to some stuff from Austrian Death Machine, together with nice music breaks and guitar solos throughout the song; and the song Dirty closing the album, which despite its interesting lyrics (“Sadism and masochism / Perverse and obsessed / Lovers and romantics / Sodom and Gomorrah”) sounds a bit generic compared to the rest of the album. The album art showing a bull and some girls, created by Chromatorium, complements the message the band wants to send to the listener, with the bull representing their heavy music while the girls are portraying the lyrics.

In short, Morning Wood is a very fun album that will please most fans of heavy riffs, explicit lyrics and brutal vocals for sure, and also an excellent option for headbangers who are looking for new bands full of energy to get into some wild mosh pits with their friends. Furthermore, you can stream the entire album and check the album art and lyrics at Voice of Ruin’s bandcamp page, and of course purchase it if you enjoy what you listen to. And to be fair, those guys deserve a shot, especially because high-quality Death Metal from Swiss farmers is not something we can find everywhere we go.

Best moments of the album: Through The Eyes Of Machete, Viols Désinvoltes and Sex For Free.

Worst moments of the album: The Rise Of Nothing and Dirty.

Released in 2014 Tenacity Music

Track listing
1. Welcome To The Stud Farm 1:27
2. Party Hard 3:58
3. Through The Eyes Of Machete 3:55
4. Day Of Rage 4:30
5. The Rise Of Nothing 4:30
6. Morning Wood 4:20
7. Viols Désinvoltes 4:17
8. Cock’n Bulls 3:27
9. Today Will End 2:41
10. Sex For Free 4:06
11. Big Dick 4:27
12. Dirty 4:09

Band members
Randy Bull – vocals
Nils Bag – guitar
Tony Cock – guitar
Erwin Van Fox – bass, clean vocals
Oli Dick – drums

Album Review – Eths / Ex Umbra In Solem EP (2014)

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Rachel Aspe is definitely here to stay. Or should I say she’s here to scream?

Rating4

CoverAfter the departure of singer Candice Clot from French Heavy Metal/Hardcore band Eths, no one knew exactly what was going to happen with the band, as she was considered an essential part of its musicality. However, the other band members didn’t waste any time, immediately replacing her with the gorgeous and talented Rachel Aspe (who will pretty soon be our “Metal Chick of the Month”), and now releasing a new EP called Ex Umbra In Solem.

Although the music from this Marseille-based band is entirely in French, “le langage de l’amour”, they’ve chosen Latin instead to name the EP, which in English means something like “From Shadow to the Sun”, maybe as a representation of the moment the band has been through in the past few months before finding Rachel. Anyway, Ex Umbra In Solem is a special digipak limited and numbered 1 to 1,000 (available exclusively at the Season Of Mist’s official e-shop and other French stores), containing a brand new song, three classic tracks recorded live on October 24, 2013 at the Divan du Monde in Paris, France, mixed by Nikhertz at Studio Phantom, and three songs from the III album, re-recorded with Rachel on vocals.

So let’s get down to business with the title-track, Ex Umbra In Solem, the only original song of the EP, with its slow, obscure and delicate intro that suddenly turns into pure violence with great riffs, all fostered by a really nice chorus (“Et je mâche, au plus profond je nage / J’abandonne lentement / Vide, elle flotte à déraison / Isolée, je tombe (in solem)”). Rachel’s voice is really powerful when guttural and smooth when clean, sounding like some of The Agonist songs, and I really wish there were more original tracks here. Well, we’ll have to wait for their next full-length album for that.

Then come the three live tracks recorded last year in Paris, with all instruments cleanly captured for our delight: Samantha might be a very short song, but its live recording sounded amazing, explaining why it was included in the EP. Moreover, Rachel is pretty good live, which is when it really matters, and it’s interesting how she can quickly change her voice in a very consistent way without any sudden breaks. Bulimiarexia shows that, in my humble opinion, although Rachel clean vocals live are not bad at all, she just needs to adjust them a little. And kudos to drummer Guillaume “Yom” Dupré in this track, he sounds amazing. The last live track is the classic Crucifère, and as you can see in the official video below, Rachel’s onstage performance is another reason why she was the chosen one.

In regards to the re-recorded songs from III with Rachel on vocals, they all sound very professional and as heavy as they should be: I have the III album and after listening to both old and new versions of Voragine I’m pretty sure even diehard fans will love Rachel as much as they loved Candice; Harmaguedon is my favorite of the re-recorded versions and will probably be Rachel’s “secret weapon” to win the hearts of the “unfaithful”; and finally Proserpina closes the EP in a very good way, following the high quality of the recording of all songs.

EthsLast but not least, the album art was once again created by photographer and designer Nicolas Sénégas, who already worked on the art of III, and it is a very good graphic translation of the dark, gothic and heavy music generated by Eths.

So after all those good things I’ve said about Ex Umbra In Solem, you might be asking why only a 3.5, right? In fact, it was supposed to be only a 3.0 for having just one brand new song, as there’s a lack of originality and creativity in the whole EP, but at the same time Rachel’s performance is so electrifying in all tracks that it deserved a 4.0, which leads to an average of 3.5: simple math to represent how awesome this new singer will be for the future of the band.

Best moments of the album: Ex Umbra In Solem, Crucifère and Harmaguedon.

Worst moments of the album: The fact that the EP has only one brand new song.

Released in 2014 Season Of Mist

Track listing
1. Ex Umbra In Solem 4:06
2. Samantha (live) 2:38
3. Bulimiarexia (live) 4:22
4. Crucifère (live) 4:33
5. Voragine (Rachel on vocals) 3:49
6. Harmaguedon (Rachel on vocals) 4:45
7. Proserpina (Rachel on vocals) 5:48

Band members
Rachel Aspe — lead vocals
Stéphane “Staif” Bihl — guitar, samples
Damien Rivoal — bass
Guillaume “Yom” Dupré — drums

 

Album Review – Caliban / Ghost Empire (2014)

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A decent Metalcore album from one of its biggest exponents in the European scene.

Rating6

Caliban_Ghost EmpireWe all know Germany is a very Heavy Metal country, with tons of important names such as Gamma Ray, Helloween, Kreator, Primal Fear, Destruction, Doro, among others, and almost all of those German bands have something in common: a very traditional approach in terms of their musicality. However, in the middle of this “cradle of tradition” there’s a band called Caliban playing a completely different type of music that people like to call Metalcore or Melodic Hardcore. Even being a band so different from their countrymen, they managed to survive through the years and gained a respectful legion of fans (you might have already seen some YouTube videos of their “Wall of Death” mosh pits in their live concerts), and now in 2014 they’re launching their 9th studio album, called Ghost Empire.

If you’re a very traditional Heavy Metal fan and do not accept anything different from what was done in the 80’s or 90’s, do not even waste your time giving Caliban a chance. What they do is more like the contemporary American Heavy Metal, with some similarities to bands like Five Finger Death Punch or Killswitch Engage, but I would say their music is a little bit more melodic than those. The first track of the album, called King, is a very good example of their modern heavy music, with singer Andreas Dörner doing a pretty decent job with his guttural vocals. It’s a good song for mosh pits, albeit I don’t like the clean vocals from Denis Schmidt at all. The next track is quite weird: Chaos – Creation starts really heavy then becomes kind of pop, but at least the riffs keep the energy high; on the other hand, Wolves And Rats is 100% heavy, especially its vocals and drums, and sounds good for some circle pits.

CalibanThe next track, nebeL, which has Bastian Sobtzick (from the band Callejon) on vocals, is a pretty cool song with an interesting chorus, while I Am Ghost has the best start of all songs and pretty heavy riffs, but gets really boring after a while. Devil’s Night has some cool lyrics and vocals and is one of the highlights of Ghost Empire, as well as yOUR Song with its awesome rhythm. These two songs should work well live and will probably be included in their future setlists. The same cannot be said about the next few tracks:  Cries And Whispers is the fastest song of the album, but the chorus sucks so bad it gets boring; Good Man is just a generic song that doesn’t make any difference to the album; and I Am Rebellion has a horrible smooth chorus. These songs explain why many diehard metal fans hate this type of heavy music with all their strength.

Fortunately the next two tracks put the album back on track: Who We Are is a lot better than previous tracks, especially due to its excellent heavy riffs; and My Vertigo is another “mosh pit” song that will please all fans of the band and even some people that know nothing about Caliban. The deluxe edition of Ghost Empire brings a very weird song called Falling Downwards, with Matt Heafy (Trivium) as guest vocalist. Matt kind of saves the song, in other words, without him it would have been the worst track of the album by far.

Last but not least, one of the best things in Ghost Empire is the album art, especially because it’s done by hand (and not by the use of a computer) and totally connects with the album name and its musicality. Maybe someone who is more into this type of heavy music would have given the album more than 2.5, but for me it lacks that punch only traditional Heavy Metal has. I wouldn’t mind checking Caliban out live at a festival here in Canada, but it’s far from becoming one of my favorite new bands.

Best moments of the album: King, Devil’s Night and yOUR Song.

Worst moments of the album: I Am Ghost, Good Man and I Am Rebellion.

Released in 2014 Century Media Records

Track listing
1. King 4:02
2. Chaos – Creation 3:30
3. Wolves And Rats 3:59
4. nebeL (feat. Bastian Sobtzick) 3:11
5. I Am Ghost 3:46
6. Devil’s Night 4:23
7. yOUR Song 4:26
8. Cries And Whispers 3:55
9. Good Man 5:07
10. I Am Rebellion 4:21
11. Who We Are 4:09
12. My Vertigo 3:15

 Deluxe edition bonus track
13. Falling Downwards (feat. Matt Heafy) 3:48

Band members
Andreas Dörner – lead vocals
Marc Görtz – guitar
Denis Schmidt – guitar, clean vocals
Patrick Grün – drums
Marco Schaller – bass guitar

Guest musicians
Bastian Sobtzick – vocals on “nebeL”
Matt Heafy – vocals on “Falling Downwards”