Jute Gyte - Isolation [2012]

Jute Gyte might just be the second coming of American black metal. Although this one-man (Adam Kalmbach) act's sheer prolificness (18 albums - not all of which are black metal - since 2006 and 10 over the past two years alone - and yes, that is a word - Google says so) might lead the unaware prospective listener into dismissing his work as thoughtless and just churned out for the sake of it, I can assure you that is not the case. No, here, Mr Kalmbach produces a fine collection of riffs, brought together with delightful cohesion to make a fine black metal album. Aside from the ambient title-track, which, to my ears at least, is just futile and does not improve the album at all, every song is a winner (as with all the best albums). Although this won't quite crack my top 10 of 2012 (a fine year for music), it's on the edge of it and well worth a listen.

Bandcamp

White Medal - Yorkshire Steel demo [2012]

YAAAAAARKSHIRE! YAAAAAARKSHIRE! Or so we say whenever we come across a Southerner (for what it's worth, the Scottish are Southerners too). White Medal originally attracted my attention with their 2010 Agbrigg Beast demo - and although that didn't seem to be much cop at the time, it's grown on me. Still, this is a lot better. For a band that have been around just 5 years, White Medal have certainly done splits with some prominent bands - first the almighty Skullflower (back in 2010), and more recently Caïna (meh), and Slægt (I haven't heard the split itself yet, but Slægt are a solid Danish band - their S/T demo is worth a listen). As for this, well, it's raw black metal. Far from revolutionary, but what White Medal do, they do it very well. Songs are constructed with a hypnotic feeling, and this is well achieved.

128 kbps

Mediafire

Laurasia Awaits Us - Apathy Remains Victorious [2012]

This is a band request, and although I can't give it 100% approval due to not having listened to the whole thing (it's not really my style), the tracks I listened to on YouTube seem decent enough. Laurasia Awaits Us is a self-described Finnish post/doom metal band. Although the former is represented by just a little tinge of the NeurIsisian axis, the latter comes across relatively well. The riffs seem good enough too. Recommended for fans of sombre doom with harsh vocals.

320 kbps (I presume)

Mediafire
Rapidgator

REVIEW: Kabul Golf Club - Le Bal Du Rat Mort EP [2012]

Firstly, I’d like to apologise to the band for the time it took me to get this review out. I’ve been in touch in the interim, but four months after receiving the promo copy should be, and is, unacceptable. With that out of the way, on to the EP itself. Although I don’t have the packaging in front of me (left it in Oxford like a twit), I remember it being pleasantly, but not fantastically presented. It’s a very simple digipack – without booklet or anything. However, the presentation is more than adequate for what I believe to be their first EP. The artwork is done in a noir style, with some hideous creature (or maybe it’s one of the members) skulking around in the dark – it’s not the prettiest thing you’ll ever see, but it does suit the music contained therein.

As for the music, the band claim to take influence from acts like At The Drive In, Shellac, Blood Brothers and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Unfortunately, as the only one of those four I’ve heard is the latter, I’m not really qualified to comment on that, but what the music provides is noisy (an attribute provided by the delicious fuzzy bass sound), angular math rock with hardcore influence (but stopping short of full-blown mathcore). From my limited experience within that region (I’m afraid I didn’t really explore much more once I heard Cows), the style is executed adequately but not fantastically. Indeed, although there are some hooks within the music, they are rather transient in the memory, and after four listens to the (fifteen-minute) EP, I could remember nothing save for the general sound and parts of the first and final tracks (the latter of which had a video released – once again, it’s nice to know that a band know what their stronger material is). Indeed, the fact that structures and melody-rhythm associations are often repeated does nothing to help the memorability of the material.

The sound would, I think, be made a little more interesting were the short noisy passages to be extended, either the quieter ones or simply the short passages of crushing atonality. This is not solely for the fact that they provide contrast to the otherwise nigh-on relentless stop-start approach to the music (which, although enjoyable in small doses, should not be repeated for fifteen minutes lest they become nothing but irritating in my humble opinion), but also because they themselves seem well-composed and, in the heavier atonal sections, project an almost nihilistic feeling at the listener. They would also help, I suppose, to distinguish KGC more from the rest of the scene and provide them with a unique style (for what it’s worth, they’re closer to Godflesh than Meshuggah).

Instrumentally, it would be lying to suggest that KGC are anything but competent – although for the most part nothing particularly special technicality-wise is attempted, none of it is particularly simple to play (or at least, none of it seems to be, syncopated rhythms abound in the EP). Furthermore, the production of each instrument is done nicely, and it comes cohesively together as a whole. Despite my gripes above about the composition, the result of this is that KGC would work very nicely as background music were it not for the undoubtedly-intrusive stop-start approach. I must, however, say that there is one weak point instrumentally – the vocalist, although competent, is very generic in approach and really adds nothing to the music. I’d go as far as to suggest that this would do just as well were it fully instrumental.

To summarise, I’d say that although there is nothing inherently wrong with the music of Kabul Golf Club, there is likewise little to elevate them above being ‘average’. Math-rock aficionados may disagree with me, but there is nothing special about this. It’s not offensive – far from it – but I really would not recommend going out of your way to seek it out.

5/10

I'm not sure whether I have permission to post a download link, but apparently The Elementary Revolt posted one at the band's request, so I'll link you there.

Official website

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Undergang - Til Døden Os Skiller [2012]

So, uh... death metal's coming along pretty well at the moment, huh? Although many may laugh derisively at many of the 'new old school' of death metal, claiming that we 'don't need more Incantation clones', there's no more shit in there than there was in old school death metal. The difference being that this time around, bands get to make albums and distribute them well-ish, via the internet. But to the point in hand. Undergang is a Danish band who, although they do take influence from Incantation, sound more like the old Finnish scene to me, with a little dose of Stockholm too. And what's more, both albums are available for free on Bandcamp. I've named the post after this one because it's the one I'm better acquainted with and thus can more heartily recommend, but there's really no reason why you shouldn't listen to both.

Til Døden Os Skiller
Indhentet Af Døden

Hopelorn - Tuonen Musta Joki Virtaa Sydämessäni [2012]

Back to more blackened crust. Hopelorn are a Finnish band who have a mainly 'black' version of the style. Their riffing is simple enough to be classified as fairly punky, but in itself is most certainly black metal. However, the battery is mostly given over to a typical d-beat with some blasts thrown in, and the structures, despite this being five tracks and 29 minutes, are fairly 'crusty'. But what about the content itself? Well, it's very decent. There's been a fuckton of the style around over the past few years, but Hopelorn are one of the better practitioners, as shown particularly on the track 'Mänskligt Avskräde', although every song here is a winner in reality. What's more, it's available as a free download through their bandcamp page, so you don't really have any excuse at all to not go and listen.

Bandcamp

Stream: Dragged Into Sunlight - Widowmaker [2012]

If you like good music, you will like Dragged Into Sunlight. And their new album is available to stream. I'm listening right now and although the 15 minute intro track is overkill, this is sounding pretty sexy.

http://www.terrorizer.com/2012/10/26/widowmaker-by-dragged-into-sunlight-is-streaming-with-terrorizer/

Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud [2012]

...And then there's this. I won't be surprised if this gets pulled within moments of me posting it, but what the hell, it's worth sharing. If you're a metal fan that's been living in a box for the past four or so years, you could be forgiven for not hearing of the most recent work by the mastermind behind Strapping Young Lad: Devin Townsend. The Project albums were a big four-album concept touching on - as Townsend's albums always seem to - themes relating to self-discovery and internal evaluation. The album series told a story of sorts: You had the tense and uncertain Ki, contemplating if heavy music is really worth the emotional trauma. Then there was Addicted, an big album of dumb fun that tried to make heavy music poppy and danceable at the same time. After this came Deconstruction, an album that can best be described as throwing a big box full of ideas and guest musicians into a ceiling fan and recording what happens. Finally there was Ghost, wrapping up the project in a willowy, "everything is wonderful" kind of way, a great way of wrapping up a great album series.

And then he goes and releases another one. Oh well, it was a nice idea while it lasted.

The release of another album under the Project moniker just out of the blue like this kind of suggests that the name of "Devin Townsend Project" is just the "Devin Townsend Band" of the moment (well, the lineup is the same, I guess): Simply another title for yet more of Townsend's solo work.

But enough about semantics, what's the bloody album like? Well, if we're going to liken it to any of the Project albums, I'd have to say it's like Addicted to the power of The Final Countdown. The LP comes with metaphorical hooks up the ass, especially in lead "single" Lucky Animals (described by Townsend live as "the most annoying song in the world", and frankly it's easy to see why). Most of the tracks here have simple verses, big choruses and - once again similar to Addicted - slightly disappointing mid-sections. Songs like Grace and the first 'proper' track True North could either do with being a bit shorter or a little more varied. But oh well, repetition is the very essence of pop music, and while this is very unlikely to be a chart-topper (I think it reached #65 or something here in the UK), a lot of the songs could quite cheerfully be played on Radio 1 and be greeted with chorus singalongs and tapping feet of the day's rush hour commuters.

I haven't really said enough about the album for this to be a full on review (you'll have to wait until my 2012 roundup for that - yes, I am still doing one), I will at least say it's bouncy and memorable enough to be good for a spin or two.

13 tracks, 49:52, 97.04 MiB

Zippyshare (Mp3, 224kbps)
Edit 28/10/12: Well, that didn't take long.

Spotlight: Fifteen Dead

Okay, quick story for you all. Fifteen Dead are fucking awesome. Story complete. I did say quick. In case you weren't aware, I've loved the recent emergence of dozens of incredible blackened crust bands, and Fifteen Dead are one of the best (along with Ramlord). They've only been around since 2010, but they've already created a discography of impressive size and quality. I still haven't heard the split with Chronocide (I really should - Chronocide are great too, much more of a blackened death sound than Fifteen Dead though), or the live demo, but the rest of the stuff is catchy, angry, and moderately atmospheric. What's more, it's all available on Bandcamp, mostly for free. So seeing as I can't upload, I'm going to treat you all in this manner.

Bandcamp
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Buy shit

Atomski Rat - Iluzije Stvarnosti [2012]

I haven't even heard this shit yet, but I was so excited when it popped up on the Degen Erik (excellent blog) RSS that I just had to post it. Seriously, Atomski Rat's debut EP (I think it was up here but it's still a Megaupload link - I'll sort that out in the next few days) was some seriously good noisy, crusty hardcore shit and essentially got me into the awesome Serbian music scene (also check out Dishumanity in particular). For a short while earlier in the year, it was looking like the band was never going to release more material but now they have - and it's a full-length (although I'm as of yet unsure of its actual length I'm guessing it'll be around 25-30 minutes long). The track I've heard from Youtube is very solid too, and there are some other samples on there in case my fanboyism wasn't enough to convince you. I never normally do this but I'm nicking a link from Degen Erik (dear other blogs, if you use a link at least acknowledge the source):

Mediafire

Foreskin - Anger Management demo [2012]

Trying to catch up a little on my backlog of band submissions - I've got a new rule, if you haven't noticed - I'll post it if I think it's good (and I'm unlikely to listen to it if I don't like the genre it's described as - take note, the guy who sent dubstep). Sorry to all those who have been waiting. Anyway, Foreskin are a crossover band from Lahore, Pakistan, and this is their fourth demo (although I was unaware of their existence until now). It consists of two tracks - the first is a little slower and seems to have a little black metal influence (although thrash is still the primary factor) and next to no hardcore, whilst the second, title track sounds like a mixture of Crossover-era DRI with a little bit of Sabbat (Japan) mixed in.

Unfortunately, the songwriting is a little bit lacking and doesn't really have anything to set it off, or indeed to set it apart from other bands of the style. Ultimately, the reason is the lack of hooks in much of the music - there's nothing which really drags the listener in (and I don't necessarily mean a chorus, it just seems like background music to me). That said, it's better than a good deal of material being produced by better-known thrash bands today (the recent Testament album being a good example), and is more than good enough for background music.

Members of the band have numerous other projects between them - the vocalist, Hassan Umer, sings for a crust band called Choots (and in all honesty, the Choots material sounds better to me), and he and guitarist Sheraz Ahmed were also members of a death/grind band called Multinational Corporations (production lacks a little bit, but it's solid deathgrind and heaven knows this author appreciates the Napalm Death reference). Ahmed is also in death metal bands Marwolaeth and Dionysus (from the tracks of the other bands I've listened to, I think Foreskin is actually my least favourite but it's still good material).

Anyway, I recommend this material to anyone who just can't get enough thrash in their life. Don't go out of your way to get it, but now you're here you might as well have a listen. Have fun.

Bandcamp
Mediafire

Warfuck - The Weak And The Wicked [2012]

Just to prove I do actually post band submissions when I like them, Warfuck is a French grindcore band - or rather, power duo - who play music based on the more riffy side of grindcore (think Nasum and Rotten Sound rather than Discordance Axis and Human Remains). The best part of the album is by far the excellent drum work, but the riff work is catchy and solid too. If there was any justice in the world, Warfuck would be much bigger than shitty bands like Gridlink already. The one less enjoyable element of the album is the vocal approach - they sound rather sterile and compressed, which to me doesn't suit this style of grindcore - nor does the production which is a little too clean for my tastes. Still, it's a good album and I recommend it.

320 kbps (I think)

Mediafire
Listen to it here

REVIEW: Hubeskyla - Spencer's Return [2012]

A large sticker adorns the cover of this LP, as you can see by looking to the left. It implores the reader to 'Play it loud and drive fast!'. Not only is this terribly irresponsible by encouraging poor road safety, it also reveals the album for what it is before one has even begun to lower the needle - a driving album. Now, there's nothing wrong with driving albums per se, but in many cases, unfortunately this one inclusive, it leads to an album which is distinctly devoid of real substance.

Hubeskyla to me appear to take influences from a variety of sources - a lot of noise rock, a bit of jazz rock, a small amount of post-rock and just a little sprinkle of the NeurIsisian axis. These are popular influences, and also the sort that need to be done exceptionally well to avoid making music which amounts to nothing more than bland. Once again, I can't help but feel that 'bland' is the correct term for this album. Not to say that Hubeskyla lack good ideas completely; indeed, there are many present here, but they have a habit of taking the odd good idea, mixing it with a whole bunch of mediocre ones and stretching the whole thing out well beyond its welcome. They've tried to make a 45 minute full-length when in reality they barely have enough material for a 20 minute EP.

There are some elements of how they do things that I really like though - take, for instance, the start of the very first track 'Spanish Firebird'. There is no messing around with some empty ambient introduction before they get to business - indeed, there's not more than 5 seconds of swathing ambience before the first riff starts. And it is a riff-based album, clearly - apparently there's no bass used on the album, but this isn't really apparent until one reads the release notes, which state (I believe, my French isn't perfect) 'There are two main barriers to the simplicity of rock and roll: vocalists and bassists'. Unfortunately, somebody neglected to mention that this is often what makes 'rock and roll' interesting and/or fun to listen to. Riff-wise, this is very much based around sharp, jagged, and often triadic riffs, but too many of the riffs simply sound the same due to the over-reliance on tonic triads in their composition. There's also not enough - once again using the first track for an example, its four minutes are filled with precisely two riffs, one of which consists of three notes, and the other of two chords. Although both of these riffs are clearly intended merely as bases upon which the music develops (they are consistently surrounded by guitar effects and short solos), they dominate the music, not due to the production, but due to the fact that the net effect of the guitar effects and solos is roughly equal to 0.

Much of the album is at the same pace, and hence it's a relief when a track comes along that breaks the tepid warmth of the middle pace used. It's for this reason that 'Spencer Smith' and 'Nucleon Drive Experience' are two of the better tracks on the album - the former uses a slightly faster, decidedly more driving riff than is present elsewhere on the album (and still it is repeated too much), while the latter, which is the closing track, has a slightly slower tempo to it which certainly gives it an air of finality, acting as a redeeming factor for the mediocrity of much of the rest of the album - it sticks in the listener's head after listening, and adds a real sense of having been on a journey over the album, even if that said journey roughly consisted of driving round and round in circles in the desert going nowhere new.

Seven of the eight tracks present here don't use vocals, and this really lends an introspective feeling to the album. There's very much a sense that the band are making the music for themselves rather than for anyone else, and the whole album has a slight feeling of an extended jam session, albeit an extraordinarily well-coordinated one; I would've liked to have seen more of a wild, free-flowing element to the album given the room for improvisation in an album of this type. There are a few solos as previously mentioned, but they feel overly-structured rather than original. The one track which does feature vocals, 'Ne Touchez A Rien' (with Emmanuel Colliard doing guest vocals) is more entertaining than the rest of the album for them despite the fact that the vocals amount to little more than spoken word - the change in the general timbre of the music is very welcome at this point, the penultimate track.

I think all has been said at this point which is relevant to the review, and I will reiterate the most important point here - whilst the band maybe had enough good material for a solid 20 minute EP, what's happened here is they've chosen to extend it to an overlong album. And for that reason, I'm afraid I can't recommend it to anyone.

3/10

Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma [2012]

Hail Spirit Noir are something of a rare breed nowadays - a progressive black metal band that doesn't go on pointless meanders around the realms of tedious ambience and atonal 'experimentation' just so they could hit that 70 minute mark for the album and make it 'truly progressive'. Ahem. Rant over. Hail Spirit Noir write SONGS - even the epic 'Into The Gates Of Time' is catchy and headbangable throughout its 13 minute duration. And 'Against The Curse, We Dream' and 'Haire Pneuma Skoteino' have some of the biggest hooks you're likely to hear in metal this year. That's not to say it loses touch of its black metal roots - and for this reason, it's very likely to be well up in lots of people's year-end lists. Hail the black spirit.

320 kbps

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Rapidshare
No iFolder, it's being a bitch

Dispair - The Progress Of Human Extinction demo [2012]

I just heard this whilst surfing the blogosphere, and I was so impressed I decided to post it here immediately. Dispair is a Finnish crust band with heavy reliance on d-beats, but the music is great - think a base of Why-era Discharge with a nice sprinkling of Anarkist Attack era Anti-Cimex. So basically the sounds of two d-beat legends combined in 2012. This sort of music is so rarely made nowadays that anyone making it is actually doing something quite original despite the style having been around 30-odd years. Dispair are going to be great in the future. Watch this space.

Bandcamp link, so variety of bitrates

Bandcamp

Greedy Mouth - Eat//Smoke//Poop demo [2012]

So I re-uploaded the first Greedy Mouth demo for you yesterday, and hopefully it's whet your whistle for this one. I honestly couldn't pick between the two. This one's longer, although it's still a short release. Anyway, back to the music. Female-fronted powerviolence, despite being more common than most other extreme music genres, is still something of a rarity (I think Stapled Shut and Despise You might have female elements to their vocal attack but don't hold me to that, I don't look this shit up unless I'm posting something). Greedy Mouth certainly make it work well. Each of the tracks here is a little bit more focused on the musical approach rather than the samples (although the delightful samples are still very much present).

256 kbps (or whatever from Bandcamp)

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Rapidshare
iFolder
Bandcamp

Government Alpha & Brianvdp - The Oranda Nippon Conspiracy [2012]

Released on J. Randall (of Agoraphobic Nosebleed fame)'s already legendary Grindcore Karaoke label, this collaborative work between Japanese harsh noise maestro Yasutoshi Mashida and Dutch graphic designer Brianvdp is a well-structured work of nicely textured noise. It's also comparatively accessible compared to much other noise and indeed most of Government Alpha's body of work, mainly because it is restricted to 42 minutes in length and thus doesn't quite have the same monolithic feel to it as even slightly longer works like Spontaneous Combustion (which clocks in at just eight minutes longer), but also because it is a little more varied in its approach than much noise, and therefore is borderline memorable in parts. Still completely amelodic, chances are if you come to this blog for metal you wouldn't enjoy this. Keep an open mind.

320 kbps (FLAC available from the bandcamp)

Bandcamp
Mediafire
Zippyshare
Glumbouploads
iFolder

We Sleep In This Machine - EP [2012]

We Sleep In This Machine is a local band - the guitarist is a friend of mine, but I try not to be biased - who play a fairly standard brand of melodic post-hardcore (if any of the metalheads who follow the blog think that means Enter Shikari then no, you're some distance off). But hey, originality went with the turn of the millenium anyway. What is important is their strong songwriting and cathartic feeling, which is present in every song on this 7-track EP. I believe the track titles refer to the month in which the track was written - which, despite being somewhat original, is not a method by which I feel tracks ought to be named. Recommended for fans of The Carrier, Life Long Tragedy and to a lesser extent Modern Life Is War. Available as a sliding-scale download from their bandcamp.

Bandcamp

Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron [2012]

The blogosphere has been ablaze of late with praise for this album. Black metal as a whole is a fairly straightforward proposition; you get distortion, riffs and harsh vocals, but the new breed has been trying to change that. The likes of Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and Nightbringer have been bringing complexity and atmosphere to black metal in a way that wasn't previously used, and here, I have a strong suspicion that Dodecahedron have taken great steps towards the next level again. It's still very close to the likes of Deathspell Omega, but there is that little something extra, especially in the epic closing trilogy 'View From Hverfell' - it's complex, yet still recognizably coherent, and it's harsh, yet crisp and clean in both its playing and production. It's been bandied around the internet for a while now, but if you don't already have this album, here's another sterling recommendation.

192 kbps

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Depositfiles
iFolder

Astra - The Black Chord [2012]

Looking at the cover, it's easy to mistake this 2012 space rock/psychedelic rock album as something Yes would have put out in about 1972. And although there is a strong prog vibe here, the spaced-out trip is what we're here for on this. "The Black Chord" is similar to a more concise, more focused version of Porcupine Tree's ambient prog album "Voyage 34", and in the sense that it is a lot easier to wrap your ears around, surpasses it hugely. Give it a whirl.

6 tracks, 47:04, 82.93 MB
Mediafire (Mp3, 320 kbps)

Pulled.