Two words: death and destruction. I think back in ’86-’87 when I first listen to Kreator’s “Endless Pain” and “Pleasure to Kill” I had that murderous feeling. Back then it was something terrible and shocking, nowadays nothing’s shocking anymore, still, Hexis delivers some brutally good mixture of extreme metal. Slow, doom and black metal grinding moments are ripped away by killer massacres of grindcore and hardcore intensity.
I wasn’t able to dig out too many infos about this Copenhagen (Denmark) based band formed in the beginning of 2010, but it seems they already has released a bunch of different records and toured Europe a few times in countries like Sweden, Germany, Holland, France, Switzerland, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic together with bands like Celeste, The Secret and This Gift Is A Curse. Read more Hexis – XI (2012)
Metal
Lamb Of God – Resolution (2012)
If there is such thing (music) as “post-Pantera Metal”, Lamb Of God are definitively the kings of it. No better album to kick in into 2012 then this furiously raging “Resolution”, the band’s seventh studio album scheduled for a January 24 release. Hard – actually quite impossible – not to jump up and bang on this. Maybe this is (still) so Pantera, but this is still murderous and those bloody riffs, those killer screams and growls, this brutal Metal still have so much anger and energy that’s gonna rip your head off. Randy Blythe learned and applied all the tricks of Anselmo perfectly, Mark Morton and Willie Adler bring to the surface the most cutting edge riffs while the rhythm section made by drummer Chris Adler and bass player John Campbell delivered the most intense grooves extremely precisely. 14 tracks, almost one hour of massacre, call it Groove, Nu or whatever Metal, this is so brutal and so good that if it wouldn’t be invented, it would have. But no use to re-invent the Steel ( 😀 ), it’s essential to play it straight from your heart and with guts and loud enough. Read more Lamb Of God – Resolution (2012)
Cartographer – Hats, Capes, Dark Arts (2011)
Some people turn up they radio, others watch one of the music channels on TV, others buy and read music magazines or on-line sites, others got their music from they friends. Some says music should be free. Some people think that music is a product, others that is an expression, a form and manifestation of art. Everybody is absolutely right. I guess. I’ve got a friend who still listening exclusively his old MCs (mechanical cassettes), other friends of mine still collect vinyl records, some people buy CDs while others are completely satisfied by mp3s. Some of my friends listening all kind of musics, don’t bother label and sort them by genre and style, others listening exclusively Metal, Jazz, Punk or whatever they prefer. Love – I doubt it, but music definitively is in the air.
Sometimes I see an interesting cover, sometimes I read somewhere something about an artist or a band, sometimes a friend recommend me something, sometimes the bands send me materials for review, sometimes the record labels or some agency. I never listen the radio, I do not watch music channels, I don’t care what’s on the top of any charts, I don’t care what the critics, “the experts” says about… anything.
I stumbled accidentally into Cartographer and I liked what I heard from the very first moment. Read more Cartographer – Hats, Capes, Dark Arts (2011)
Dungeon Elite [**] – New World Disorder (2011)
Emocore, NintendoCore, Happy GrindCore, Electro Metal, label it as you please, this is extremely intense and murderous s*it. Fada (Screaming), Becko (Synthesizers and Vocals), and finally Maia (Vocals) formed the group in Rome, Italy and their released their debut, “Make Love Not Warcraft” in 2007. Described on their MySpace profile as “Techno/Grindcore/Emotronic”, their music is a refreshing mixture of Hardcore, Nintendo and Game sounds like elements with Dance and Electronic musics, it’s extremely pulsing, dynamic, Metal and Techno melt into one and explode. Read more Dungeon Elite [**] – New World Disorder (2011)
naisian – Monocle (2012)
I was quite impressed by naisian’s debut album “Mammalian” (review HERE) back in July and now Adam Zejma hit me with their upcoming new EP called “Monocle”, scheduled for a 3/2/2012 release.
As they says, “the two tracks that make up Monocle have been written and recorded throughout 2011 and are inspired by the insipid Sheffield music scene and the bitter cold of the Northern winter (we failed to fully winterize our practice room and paid the price).
“Welcome to the Cool Club” is a spiteful rant designed to distract attention from our lack of fashion sense. “Cptn. Cluedo” is a tour story about how we were nearly killed at Watford Gap service station by two fiery (ginger) builders.” Read more naisian – Monocle (2012)
Monarchy – Hysteria (album teaser)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXphJZwOsQw&w=540&h=396]
Formed in the early 90s, Read more Monarchy – Hysteria (album teaser)
Superbutt – Music For Animals (2011)
I was waiting for this one. I know András since he was the frontman of his previous band, Fresh Fabrik back in the mid 90’s and I was there when he decided to leave the uprising band and take his chances with a brand new project. And it seems he was right. Superbutt became pretty soon one of the most strongest Hungarian metal combo. “2 Minutes For Roughing” released in 2001 was an angry, raging hardcore/metalcore album blowing right in your face. Two years later the band returned with “The Unbeatable Eleven” only to prove that they are here to stay. “Black Soup” in 2006 and “You and Your Revolution” in 2008 showed a more mature band, but without they loosing their edge. Superbutt has toured all across Europe since 2001 and played over 500 gigs, sharing the stage with bands such as Clawfinger, Ignite, Pro-Pain, Soulfly, In Flames, Prong, Mucky Pup and Rollins Band, among many others.
I was waiting for “Music For Animals” and Superbutt didn’t let me down again. Read more Superbutt – Music For Animals (2011)
Rorcal vs. Solar Flare – Split (2011)
From Hollywood to Melbourne and from soul to pop and from blues to metal, Solar Flare (in different forms) seems to be a quite popular name among artists. I dug till China and back, but it was kind of “mission impossible” to find anything about this particular Solar Flare. Finally I get some help from the Domino Media Agency and about this “Swiss doom conspiracy”.
Switzerland already delivered several exciting products this year, and the land of 26 cantons seems to be very resourceful also in metal. Rocal was formed in 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland and last year their released their fifth record, “HELIOGABALUS” – which is a single 70 minutes monolithic piece. Solar Flare is a side-project from Impure Wilhemina formed also in Geneva by Michael Schindl (Guitar, vocals), David Schindl (Drums), Thierry Baertschiger (Guitar) and Didier Baertschiger (Bass) in 1998. In 2006, the band suffered several line-up changes: David and Thierry leaved Geneva, and were replaced by Mario Togni (drums) and Alexandre Müller (guitar).
This collaborative split is exclusively available on Call of Ror label’s e-shop and for entire streaming on SoundCloud. Read more Rorcal vs. Solar Flare – Split (2011)
Neurotech – 2011, free downloads
I was damn sure I did write about “Antagonist”, the band’s debut album back in March when it was released, but hell no, I could not dig out that review, but with all the troubles and errors I had faced this year with this site and my hosting, I’m not surprised of anything anymore. Anyway, “Antagonist” and their brand new EP entitled “Blue Screen Planet” are available at their official site for free download, respectively “name your price” as digital release, while you can still buy the “Antagonist” special CD+T-Shirt pack for only 15€.
Although “name your price” means even zero, I still believe artist deserves and needs all of our support, mostly artists from the underground who bring to the surface alternatives for the usual mainstream bulls*its.
Neurotech from Ljubljana, Slovenia, formed back in 2007 by Wulf delivering a pounding mixture of metal riffing and electronic layers merging powerful metal with spacy, cinematic trance/ambiental electro music. It’s a quite electrifying and refreshing experiment, harmonies, strong choruses and deep textures, grinding guitars are make perfect match here melting into one. Gothic romanticism and heavy brutality collide in their music resulting something beautiful and gloomy, mysterious and heavy. And just as I said, they efforts needs to be rewarded. Read more Neurotech – 2011, free downloads
Chevelle – Hats Off to the Bull (2011)
Formed in 1995 and selling over three million albums in the United State, released six albums, the first, “Point #1” was produced by Steve Albini, while their second album, “Wonder What’s Next”, was certified Platinum, Chevelle delivering a powerful, intense alternative/post metal, compared often with Tool, Clutch and Helmet. Despite comparisons, Chevelle having a unique sound and style, delivering mature, multicolored music.
“Hats Off to the Bull” consist of 11 tracks and 43 minutes play time is another trip into the dark, mysterious side of the (post) metal. Hanging to conventional genres, styles, labels, don’t really work in their case, this is metal, but sometimes they throw away their electric instruments and play interiorized, chill, but disturbing, acoustic tune or they just get into some gloomy, sometimes quite contorted, subtle and gently layered gloomy space build up of sounds. But at the bottom line they still and always rocks. Read more Chevelle – Hats Off to the Bull (2011)
