Throatruiner Records have a nice, fan-friendly approach by making most of their products accessible for free-download. I just wanna say this, on one hand the legal – or not – free downloads helps to spread and popularize the music and the new bands mainly, but on the other hand, every and each free download makes the artist lives one grade harder and one drop bitterer. So, I’m just telling you, support your favorite artists in any way you can, please share this album as much as you can, give them as much as you can. You may not realize how much that matters. The underground and the new artists deserves at least this much. Otherwise in a few years we may left exclusively with the plastic stuffs offered by the big corporated shitheads. Fuck. I had to say that. Thanks.
The Phantom Carriage are an extreme, but excitingly experimenting band combining different genres from black metal to jazz. “New Thing” is gloomy, intense and exciting, so don’t let yourself scared away by the very first impression. Read more The Phantom Carriage – New Thing (2011)
Metal
Ocoai – The Electric Hand (2011)
Ocoai are an awesome surprise. Guitarist and engineer/producer Travis Kammeyer and drummer Tim Smith met in in the summer of 2006 and wanted to try something different, they wanted to be the loudest and heaviest band around. And the sound of Ocoai is kind of muddy, sludgy, spreading into multi-layered dimensions, imagine Moody Blues jamming around with Down or Sigur Rós playing some Mastodom songs. I hate labels and labeling music, but this is kind of cinematic Metal. Ambiental, spacy constructions, ingenious use of the cello, gentle guitar tunes or crushing riffs and noisy explosions completing and overlapping each other in a nice, natural flow. Without a vocalist they managed to fill up the wide spaces, but still, I believe a powerful throat can take them much further. In any case, not a James LaBrie copy I had in mind, but eventually someone with the qualities and abilities of John Bush (Armored Saint, Anthrax). Read more Ocoai – The Electric Hand (2011)
Otep – Atavist (2011)
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“Drunk on the Blood of Saints” will rip your head off before you know it and all the 12 new songs from “Avavist” are intense and unforgiving bulldozers of modern Metal, even “quieter” songs like “We Dream Like Lions” will smash you into the ground. Read more Otep – Atavist (2011)
Silverstein – Rescue (2011)
I discovered Silverstein back in 2009 when they released their previous album “A Shipwreck in the Sand”, a colorful, intense, modern Metal album. The Canadian band formed in 2000 at Burlington, Ontario, have been navigated from Emo to Screamo and while those labels seems uncomfortable and commercially more and more unproductive, they switched to the much generous Post-hardcore. Well, as I said “A Shipwreck in the Sand” was a powerful and very inspired release and the first concept album by the band. Meanwhile the band moved to a new home, Hopeless Records and “Rescue” marks their first album release for the new label and maybe they were under some pressure… Read more Silverstein – Rescue (2011)
Abraham – An Eye On The Universe (2011)
Formally known as Le Baron Vampire, Abraham was formed in 2007 around members of metal acts Kruger and Nabokoff. Abraham is a post-hardcore quintet from Lausanne, Switzerland and they recently singed to Pelagic Records and making their debut with this dark and heavy album called “An Eye On the Universe”. Abrasive and heavy, tenebrous and cloudy, Abraham bring to the surface a contorted universe, they shifting from dark and intense moments to mysterious and spacier passages, but maintaining permanently the tension, the gloomy atmosphere. Shreds of light sometimes comes through the cracks of the crushing themes they construct and that brings color and interesting shades into their music. Read more Abraham – An Eye On The Universe (2011)
Mono Inc. – Viva Hades (2011)
The leading riff of the title track “Viva Hades” it’s just a huge take off from “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode. Still, the album was nominated by the German ORKUS Magazine as “album of the month” and got 10 out of 10 points. Well, I was always a little bit skeptical about artists praised by media. Mono Inc. delivering German taste like Gothic Rock, blending melodious vocals with heavy guitar riffs and tones, synth layers and pianos with Metal sounds, they have a few better riffs – “Admiration Hill” which reminds me of Marilyn Manson – , they have some fine choruses and pumping themes (“C’est La Vie”), but still, I think Mono Inc. suffers from the same linear, repeating and mainly “pale” symptoms of musical constructions as most of the German artist/bands dose. Well, not everybody can be Faust or Einstürzende Neubauten, not even Rammstain, isn’t it? Read more Mono Inc. – Viva Hades (2011)
Poisonblack – Drive (2011)
Poisonblack sounds just like James Hetfield & Co. disguised are playing in some Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) tribute band. Well, some Gothic resonances are still vibrating mainly in their slower themes, but Poisonblack – just like many other bands – left behind their roots and strip down to the bones their sound and it results nothing but pure Rock. And above all this parallels, Poisonblack sounds mature, grinding powerful and those cracking guitar tone, catchy riffs, simple but colorful guitar solos and clean, powerful vocals are quite convincing. This Finnish band rocks literally.
After the departure of Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto in 2003 (currently in the bands Charon, Harmaja and Northern Kings), bringing of Ville Laihiala (ex-Sentenced) seems to be a winning card. Laihiala wrote very few songs for Sentenced whose main-songwriters were Miika Tenkula and Sami Lopakka, became the band’s principal songwriter, assumed vocal duties himself and has since led Poisonblack in a musical direction that closely mirrors that of his former band. Read more Poisonblack – Drive (2011)
ZeroGravity – Misplaced Moments (2011)
It’s just like I’m looking for! There’s a band named Zero Gravity Band from Michigan, US and this one called ZeroGravity from Belgium. ZeroGravity was formed in 2003 and they soon recorded their first demo entitled “Synchronicity”. After several line-up changes, in April and May 2004 their first live concerts were played and in 2005 a new demo was released, the 4 tracks “Passagesâ€. Between 2005 en 2007, the band hit the stage again and started to develop a steady live reputation with a gig at the Progpower Festival in Baarlo being a definite highlight. By the end of 2008, ZeroGravity started the recording of their debut full-length album , but things have been delayed till the end of 2010. But here we go, “Misplaced Moments” are finally available. Read more ZeroGravity – Misplaced Moments (2011)
Lake Of Tears – Illwill (2011)
Four years after their 2007 effort “Moons and Mushrooms”, Lake Of Tears will release on April 29 their eight studio album. “Illwill” it’s dark, it’s heavy, it’s beautiful, it’s always recognizably Lake Of Tears, but they always evolved, searched, experimented and vary their sound and this ongoing development has continued through to this new album as well. There’s still gloomy reminiscences of Doom Metal, persist some polished Gothic shines, but Lake Of Tears have a strong and simple line of pure Rock groove in their vein and what make them different from most of the now days bands it’s their determination and focus to quality and music without fitting into some strictly delimited genre. Read more Lake Of Tears – Illwill (2011)
Debauchery – Germany’s Next Death Metal (2011)
According to the dictionary, “debauchery” means indulgence in sensual pleasures; scandalous activities involving sex, alcohol, or drugs without inhibition. So, let’s have some scandalous fun! The horror and fantasy world melt into noisy, powerful metal in the hands of these guys from Stuttgart, Germany. Honestly, I was a little bit afraid of another Running Wild or something, but hell no, Debauchery are kicking like a mule and they are heavy like the elephant shit! Try to imagine a freaky mixture of Gwar, Rob Zombie and add some traditional Thrash and Death – eventually Kreator – flavor to it and you will get the idea what’s Debauchery sounds like. But what actually I really like about this “Germany’s Next Death Metal” is the fact that they write some great songs and have a fantastic groove. Read more Debauchery – Germany’s Next Death Metal (2011)
