» release reviews

Release review: Cauldron Black Ram – Slubberdegullion (Weird Truth/The Cave)

biodagar — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:32:12 +0000

Adelaide death metallers Cauldron Black Ram return with a bottom-heavy, and well-managed, concept album that they ought to be proud of.

Locally, anticipation has been quite high for the release ofCauldron Black Ram‘s new album, Slubberdegullion, which has only just been released. In the interests of transparency, I will point out that these guys are mates of mine – but that small fact isn’t going to stop me from writing an honest review.

Cauldron Black Ram have given us, with Slubberdegullion, a very bottom-heavy death metal release. The very first thing I noticed about it was the production – things like that, I always notice first, so it oughtn’t to surprise you. In my opinion it’s detrimental to the release, because it is a bit thick and yet, perhaps contradictorily, raw at the same time. To get the best out of Slubberdegullion you have to dick around with your equalizer for a bit to get it to optimum listening levels; once you do that, however, you can take the release on its merits.

I won’t lie: the production values might actually…. READ MORE –>

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RELEASE REVIEW: Dark Funeral – Angelus Exuro pro Eternus (Regain/Riot)

biodagar — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:22:58 +0000

Dark Funeral come blasting out of the blackness with their latest offering. It’s a movement up and forwards; it’s more technical and varied; and it’s also very, very addictive.

An uncompromising release, Dark Funeral‘s Angelus Exuro pro Eternus kicks off at full speed with The end of human race. It’s a feast of minor chords and catchy rhythms. Built on a mid-paced harmonic progression, the first tracks moves into The birth of the vampiir with ease. The pace of track two slows down just over a minute in and provides the necessary variation for the increasing speed of it to recapture your attention. The band manages to keep your attention by virtue of its use of harmonic variation, nicely placed tempo change, and a cinematic drama that underlies Dark Funeral’s dense and intense wall of sound.

The third track, Stigmata, is not musically vastly different – some changes in key and tempo are highlights – but it’s the hypnotic, repetitious intonation of the word ‘stigmata’ in this track that is its selling point.

And so the release goes on. One of the things that is so gripping for me with Dark Funeral’s particular brand of black metal is the band’s attention to composition. You might have a fairly constant and continuous – some would say not particularly unique or interesting – base of percussion, but… READ MORE –>

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RELEASE REVIEW: Claim the Throne – Aletales (Prime Cuts)

biodagar — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:34:13 +0000

Perth folk metallers Claim the Throne give us a bit of an insight into what they’re capable of with their five-track EP (CD/DVD digipack) Aletales. And it’s pretty damn good.

Renowned for their rollicking good-times live shows, Claim the Throne is an Australian band worth experiencing if you ever get the chance to see them grace a stage with their beer bongs, beach balls, and generally large presence. Which is why I was a little bit apprehensive about how well they would come across in a recording. Happily, they manage to pull it off.

Aletales is the band’s second CD release, and it is a lot better – especially production-wise – than their first one, Only the brave return. Aletales is a slick production from the packaging to the music itself…. READ MORE –>

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RELEASE REVIEW: Gnaw Their Tongues – All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity (Burning World/Crucial Blast)

biodagar — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:37:18 +0000

If you think you know what experimental noise/art metal is, then you haven’t heard Gnaw Their Tongues’ latest release. This is an intense experience: one you absolutely have to have before you die.

Gnaw Their Tongues’ All The Dread Magnificence of Perversity is not so much an album you’d listen to as experience. It’s a whole-of-mind/whole-of-brain type experience; listening to this you can’t really do anything else. It takes up the entirety of your brain. There is so much going on, in so many layers; it’s an emotional and psychological journey through utter derangement, without being the untamed, discomposed noise of something like Dysrhythmia‘s Psychic Maps.

This album is entirely different territory to anything like something Dysrhythmia could dream up. It is cinematic, deep, multilayered; and I suspect that a lot has gone into its construction. There are symphonic elements that interleave with unintelligible, harsh vocals; there are sound-effects, super-down-tuned guitar and bass; slow percussion; and the sort of sound I am going to label ‘industrial’ – but industrial in the sense of basic goings-on of a distant factory than anything like ‘industrial’ genre music or industrial metal.

Being the sort of person who’s always had a penchant for the music created by factories, building sites, and distant air conditioners on a hot, dark night, this kind of thing hit the spot with me. But combine it with the unsettling soundscapes of horror and you have something not just interesting, but particularly special…. READ MORE –>

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RELEASE REVIEW: Hackneyed – Burn After Reaping (Nuclear Blast/Riot)

biodagar — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:34:52 +0000

I did the unforgiveable and had high hopes for Hackneyed’s sophomore release. While the album is technically proficient, I found myself disappointed with it. And it wasn’t for a while that I worked out why.

The first Hackneyed release, which had nearly everybody in the world going bananas – including me – about such a young, proficient death metal band, was one of those hallmark releases. It made people sit up and take notice, not just because of the band members’ youth, but also because of the band’s mature sound. Naturally, then, being so excited about Death Prevails, I had really looked forward to Burn After Reaping.

Which is the first sin in music journalism. I should have left all my expectations at the door. I didn’t, and I was therefore disappointed. But it took me a while to work out that it was the fact that the Hackneyed sound was rather stripped back compared to the band’s debut.

Burn After Reaping is chunky, mid-paced death metal. It’s downtuned rhythms and the rhythms of vocalist Phil, fit together neatly, one complementing the other nicely…READ MORE –>

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RELEASE REVIEW: Various Artists – Tidbits of Lunacy (Anstalt/Riot)

biodagar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:35:07 +0000

In case you hadn’t heard, Nuclear Blast recently started a new label for your more crusty, underground, extreme, (mostly) grind acts. This label, Anstalt Records, is just the sort of thing that I personally think has been long overdue. I love this sampler. It’s no-holds-barred, shitty, hilarious grind.

As a taster, Anstalt have released Tidbits of Lunacy: a very short sampler EP in fact, featuring two tracks each from three acts: Milking the Goatmachine, Bakteria and Pitbull Terrorist. The collection blasts you through an extremely enjoyable short period of time – something like 20 mins. Each band won its way into my crazy metaller’s heart instantly. READ MORE –>

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Release Review: DAEMONICUS: Host of Rotting Flesh (ViciSolum/Riot)

biodagar — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:45 +0000

I haven’t been addicted to an album with such intensity as this since I first heard Steel Panther’s release Feel The Steel. The difference is that this is otherwise a middle-of-the-road death metal release. The reason for my addiction took some figuring out.

The reason for my addiction to this album – the band’s debut, by the way – has been puzzling me. On the one hand, Daemonicus provide us with a reasonably typical death metal release. On the other hand, it’s one of those rare releases that gets better the deeper into the album you get; no, more than this, it gets better and builds on itself, with every track.

One of the other reasons for my addiction to this release is that it’s brooding thrashy death at its best. If you know anything you know that a lot of death metal has its roots in thrash – and if you need this demonstrated to you, you need to listen to this album…. READ MORE –>

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Release Review: AS I LAY DYING – This is Who We Are DVD (Metal Blade/Riot)

biodagar — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:44:56 +0000

DVD set cover

I must admit that prior to watching the documentary about As I Lay Dying included in this pack, I couldn’t have given two shits about this band. It’s a credit to both the band members themselves, and to the filmmaker Denise Korycki, that by the end of it I did give a fuck – enough to sit through the following two discs.

Don’t be fooled by anyone who might tell you otherwise: this is an enormous package. It is not only three DVDs – a documentary that runs for an enormous length of time; a live DVD, which is comprised of a progression through a rediscovery of shows of their roots, as in, playing old-school venues; and a third DVD filled with music videos and bonus features. I figure that because it’s such a big package, I may as well split this review down the same way. This is a long review – you have been warned!… READ MORE –>

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Release Review: DEATH ANGEL – Sonic German Beatdown: Live in Germany (Nuclear Blast/Riot)

Leticia — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:39:26 +0000

Cover of Sonic German Beatdown

This is the first live recording in Death Angel’s history. It’s very well representative of these guys on stage, and is not the sort of DVD you want to miss out on. Thrash fans, and Death Angel fans in particular, need to get their hands on it. Now.

This live DVD features seminal Bay Area thrashers Death Angel at the Rockhard Festival in Germany in 2007. Unlike most DVDs out there on the market, this one doesn’t open with titles, or a menu, but launches straight into two film clips as the intro to the disc, both from Killing Season, before getting immediately into the live performance that comprises the entirety of this release. READ MORE –>

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