Encoffination - O' Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres (2011)

Band: Encoffination
Country: Georgia/San Diego, California
Style: Death/Doom Metal
Label: Selfmadegod Records

Wayne Sarantopoulos, otherwise known as Elektrokutioner, is a busy man, he easily has over five bands going at the moment, this one being one of them. In the last decade his many bands have been pumping out old-school variations of death metal into the underground for dorks like me to just eat up. After their praised debut last year, "Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh," we have this new album which I've heard is just as good.
One could make a case that Encoffination has actually undergone a sort of transformation or evolution since their debut last year. Unlike several of Elektrokutioner's other bands, make a note that they're not all like that though, there is a shift in the sound on here, and it's more than one based on production. Some of his other bands have remained pretty true to their old-school death metal sound without much variation, but this one really sees a sort of change. Sure, it's still death/doom, that hasn't changed, but I feel like the first album was kind of like listening to a band play in a cave, with everything sort of reverberating and bouncing back at them to create a giant wave of sound that was more than a little messy sounding, this sounds more like they're playing in a church or cathedral. The sound is a lot clearer, but retains a similar sense of cacophony and reverberation. The use of tubular bells and gongs throughout several of these tracks only adds to that feeling. The open sounding, reverbed-as-hell drums on the last two tracks are great additions into the fold as well, they just echo out and create this monstrous atmosphere and raddled behind the guitars. I should make note that those instruments were used on the debut as well, I just found them more poignant on here.
I felt this was a much more graspable album and it was a lot easier to kind of digest than their debut. The songwriting is a lot clearer as well, the riffs, while still being really thick and distorted, are a lot easier to make out. When the duo go doom, hear the end of Elegant In Their Funebrial Cloaks, Arisen for example, that's when I really got excited, because that's really what I feel the essence of death/doom is, and there's even a bit more of that romantic feel that was present on the early albums by the Peaceville three on here as well. As I'm writing this it just struck me that you actually can hear more of that early My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost kind of vibe in there, not a lot mind you, but it's definitely in there. But I can't discount the other half of the duo, Ghoat, who does pretty much everything but the drums, definitely brings the greatest elements to the album, the riffing and the low-gurgling vocals. Without him, I do not believe that this band would differ from other death/doom bands, much like their other collaboration, Father Befouled does. The album really moves further into doom territory in it's ladder moments, which I personally enjoyed, but definitely show why this band differs from Elektrokutioner's other bands, his use of extremely dense and huge sounding atmospheres absolutely covers this album, which might be a turn-off, but if you love atmosphere, much like I do, than this is a must.
This is the type of death metal that I love to hear, it's old-school, low and slow, but with plenty of dynamics. It's a great slab of death/doom that should definitely appeal to any fan of death metal. Definitely check this out if you like your death metal brutal, atmospheric, and crusty.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: Rites of Ceremonial Embalm'men, Crypt of His Communal Devourment, Annunciation of The Viscera

Malignant Christ - Forever In Chaos (2011)

Band: Malignant Christ
Country: Knoxville/Morristown, Tennessee
Style: Atmospheric/Brutal Death Metal
Label: Forbidden

For me, notice I'm only referring to myself here, I don't hear/listen to a lot of bands that come out from Tennessee, let alone extreme metal bands. I mean, based on the cover I could kind of guess what kind of sound these guys would have, but that doesn't really matter in terms of how their home has shaped their sound, like some bands. I was actually quite intrigued, before hand, as to what these guys would do with extreme metal.
This is an odd one for me because I've never heard of the band before, which is fine, usually a good thing actually, but after listening to it a couple of times through, it's still a little weird. This is a death metal album, stylistically, the vocals are guttural and low, the guitars are tuned really low, and the drumming relys on a lot of blast-beats. But what's weird about this is how much of a debt it owes to bands like Portal or Impetuous Ritual in terms of how this record actually comes out sounding. This is very atmospheric and the guitars are really, and I mean really, muddy sounding. The whole thing, the guitars and atmospherics kind of blend together into this really dense sort of low-end distortion that can make making out riffs a little difficult at times. As I said, the drums rely heavily on blast-beats, to the extent that I read someone say that it kind of referenced the brutal end of the death metal sub-genre, which I could certainly agree with, not only in term so playing but also the tinny sound of them as well.
In all honesty, this thing can be a real bitch to listen to if only because of how how it was mixed. If you picture it as a latter, for example, the guitars and bass are way on top with the vocals, which in all honesty are pretty low and are near indecipherable, if lyrics matter a lot to you, you're gonna need a lyric sheet for this one, and the drums are near the bottom, very loud and clear sounding in comparison. I found it a lot easier to get into a song if the drums broke out of a blast-beat every once in a while, because the guitars wind up sounding like mud for the better part of the album, so it's hard to really say they're coming up with anything memorable. I don't consider this to hurt the album too much, after having listened to it a handful of times, but when I first listened to this, I'll be honest and say I hated it for production and mixing reasons alone. Just to give props on them for something, it wasn't until track five, Mutilation Ritual, that I actually heard the drums as a drum-machine, which I have to say, usually it's quite easy to make out, but these guys did a good job of keeping things in the realms of possibility on here, as well as not making it really, really annoying. In terms of songwriting though, I think it's about average for a band like this, you find little riffs or drum patterns that catch your ear, but it's still pretty naive compared to a lot of other groups.
I don't ask for much, but I would love it if the band would take a little bit of a cleaner route to recording their guitars on the next album so I could make out what the low-end it actually doing most of the time. Besides that, check this out if you like really atmospheric death metal.
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: Escape The Torment, Mutilation Ritual, Torches of Sodomy

Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street (2011)

Band: Hammers of Misfortune
Country: San Francisco, California
Style: Progressive/Heavy Metal
Label: Metal Blade

If there's ever been a metal in the last decade to avoid categorization, while remaining metal mind you, it would have to be Hammers of Misfortune. Very few bands have the sound that this band has managed to capture. Having said all that, they're still one of those bands that I enjoy only once in a while.
I have to give credit to where credit is due, Metal Blade, a label I had pretty much written off in the last couple of years due to the majority of their releases being pretty sub-par metalcore/deathcore albums that I had no interest in, have really done a good job this year of expanding outwards into some other styles. But onto the band at hand, HoM is one of those bands that just defies all categorization. In the past, and on here as well, you get a mix of folk rock, traditional heavy metal, 70s prog rock, and a little bit of extreme metal thrown in there once in a while as well, giving you a band that just transcends genres. They're one of those bands that came out a little too late, because it they had come out in the late 70s or early 80s, these guys would be lauded as pioneers, which they are anyway, but would probably be a lot more known and respected, those who know about them do hold them in the highest regard anyway.
I've perceived this record as a little bit of everything they've done in the past kind of thrown into one record with a few new twists thrown in there as well. You have the great guitar harmonies that they've used in the past, but this record is slower, in my opinion, than their last one, and is probably more in line with "The Locust Years" in terms of how doomy it is, but it also keeps more of that old-school prog element from their last record, "Fields/Church of Broken Glass," in the songwriting as well. You can count on the great choruses and fantastic solos throughout, which isn't really anything new, but something that has not stagnated at any point in the band's career yet, and this record just shows a further strengthening of those elements, hear the likes of first single(?) The Grain. One of the absolute highlights on here is The Day The City Died, which I've heard was at least inspired somewhat by soul music, and it's totally obvious listening to the vocals and keyboard lines throughout the song, it's absolutely fantastic. But, I will admit to this record going a bit overboard sometimes, I found the weird 80's sounding prog-ballad Summer Tears to be a bit too long and a little too cheesy for my own personal taste. After that track, Grey Wednesday feels a bit boring in comparison, but closer Going Somewhere totally picks up the slack with it's more proggy direction, and it doesn't get boring at all.
This is a really good album with a lot of really good proggy, heavy metal songs that just click right away. I do think the album does fall off near the end, but it does redeem itself with the last track. Definitely check this out if you want to hear some really good metal, maybe approach with caution if you expect it to be extreme, but if you can handle a more old-school approach, highly recommended.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: 17th Street, The Day The City Died, Going Somewhere

Iced Earth - Dystopia (2011)

Band: Iced Earth
Country: Tampa, Florida
Style: Power/Thrash Metal
Label: Century Media

Iced Earth is one of those bands that I've grown up with since I was little. My father being a fan of theirs so I have listened to them for quite some time before I ever even got into "metal." Later getting into Into Eternity, I was quite excited to see what Iced Earth would do with Stu Block as their new vocalist.
Stu Block is a great vocalist, I'll say up front that he does a great job on here, there's little question about his range and performance, but it'll take more than this album to convince me of his place in the band. I'm a fan of his voice, as I just said above, I like Into Eternity, but I was also a fan of Tim "Ripper" Owens and of course Matt Barlow. I'm sure like me, many fans will always find Barlow to be the true vocalist of Iced Earth if only because of his presence on some of their classic albums, his tenure in the band did earn him that title, so I'm only a little skeptical because this is Block's first album with the band. I'm sure by the next album I'll start to acknowledge his presence as a key part in the band and not just another singer. But like I said, his voice is great, and he is obviously gifted with a fantastic range that has brought him much fame, but on here, he esques the harsher side of his range in favor of a more mid-range style that definitely sounds like Barlow in many spots. He does bring out his trademark dog-whistle highs in spots, trumping Ripper in that style, but luckily those aren't overused. His entire range is perhaps used best on a track like Boiling Point or Dark City where he goes from lower, Barlow style to really high falsetto at the snap of a dime.
As many others have noticed with this album, the entire band sounds revitalized and much more on point than on their last couple. The songs on here are much more energetic and full of energy, even the softer moments, Anguish of Youth, that hasn't been found in their albums for several years. The songwriting is also much better, with the opening four tracks just nailing you over and over with great hooks and riffs. Now, after those initial four tracks, the album does fall off a little bit, V sounds a little too cheesy for me, a little too power metal if you will, and feels like it would be more appropriately performed by a group like Gamma Ray. Now, I'll freely admit that when it comes to modern thrash and power metal, I've totally out of the loop, but from skimming random albums from the genres throughout the year, this is one of the most memorable and energetic releases from those genres this year, in my opinion.
As a whole, this is definitely one the band's better albums in a while, but it's still not a masterpiece. I know other reviews and people who have heard it are in a similar spot that I'm in, it's good but not great. Definitely look into it if you're a long time fan of the band, you will not be disappointed, or if you want to hear a very strong sounding power/thrash metal album.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Dystopia, Anthem, End of Innocence

Matt Stevens - Relic (2011)

Band: Matt Stevens
Country: North London, UK
Style: Experimental Rock/Fusion
Label: Independent

Earlier this year I reviewed Matt Steven's band, The Fierce and The Dead, and was pretty impressed with what they were doing. Recently, Matt sent me this, his third full-length solo album. Now, when I got this, I thought it was just something he was doing for fun, but finding out it was actually his third, I was a little surprised.
Now, having only heard The Fierce and The Dead album, which was a rather experimental take on post-rock, coming into Stevens' solo material was even more shocking. As a solo record, there isn't really a single cohesive style really blending these songs together, as you'll hear a wide range of styles from post-punk to folk rock to flamenco. There's even a bit of a trip-hop vibe coming through on a couple tracks as well, which was quite interesting. There's really a little bit of something for everyone in here. I mean, this is an instrumental, guitar based album, so by everyone I do mean people who can tolerate instrumental music. In my opinion, and this is coming from a person that likes instrumental music, so I'm bias, but there's enough variety to not get bored with the album, but you'll obviously have your personal favorites.
But like I said above, it's really not all that cohesive, sounding more like a bunch of different songs that Stevens had written and he just put them all on here. I mean, the underlying jazz and fusion influence in his playing could be seen as the adhesive to link these songs together, but it doesn't quite feel connected enough to really do that for me, and that's not to say that the jazz influence isn't well done enough to be justified. The likes of Rusty and are well done, really all the songs are, but the album lacks the distinct characteristic among them all to really feel like a whole and not just a bunch of parts. I guess one could also counter the cohesion thing with the point that most of the instrumentation on here is acoustic guitar, but once again, that's not really the sort of cohesion I mean. This record rarely goes into any sort of "heavy" territory, with the only exception being the very fusion-esque Frost, which moves back-and-forth between jazzy leads and thrashy bursts.
I know the last paragraph was kind of a rant but I do actually enjoy this album quite a bit. I do think it's more of a collection of songs rather than a full album, if that makes any sense, but that's just me. Check it out if you like some experimental and instrumental rock.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Relic, Scapegoat, 30 END

Of The Wand & The Moon - The Lone Descent (2011)

Band: Of The Wand & The Moon
Country: Copenhagen, Denmark
Style: Neo-Folk
Label: Heiðrunar Myrkrunar

Let's talk about a group that's become quite well respected in the world of folk music. The long running project from Kim Larsen has grown from a little project in the realms of neo-folk into a project that is considered one of the most popular in the sub-genre at the moment. Having been around since 1999, it's obviously changed from straight-up neo-folk, but you can always expect quality from Larsen.
Now, I'll just say right up front that I have not heard everything released under the project, I do have a quite a bit of the material released and I've listened to it whenever I've been going through a neo-folk binge, but not really besides that. But when I listened to this album, I was quite surprised by the poppy nature of it. Not to say that other discs haven't had their fare share of catchy material or songs that stuck in your head, but albums like "Lucifer" or ":Emptiness: Emptiness: Emptiness" always felt like there were more focused on maintaining a dark atmosphere rather than having songs that just stuck in your head. Having said that, there's something to be said for the atmosphere that Larsen has created for the project over the years. Very few other bands manage to create an atmosphere that is both desolate, mournful, and dark but also beautiful, romantic, and heartbreaking at the same time, and that can be found on here as well.
The use of more eclectic instrumentation has aided this album in bringing some of the darkest soundscape created within the project yet. Several songs on here feature instrumentation that comes across much more uplifting and almost jazzy in a way, the trumpet solo on Absence, having said that, I'm reviewing this after listening to some jazz so make of that what you will. That, as well as near electronic influence, in the percussion of some tracks, A Pyre of Black Sunflowers, brings a texture that hasn't really been used in the project before this album. Like I said above, the ambiance remains, but is perhaps more solemn in places than ever before, the dark ambient piece Is It Out of Our Hands? really fails to stick in my mind as a whole, but the soundscape created has stayed with me long after the album closes.
This is a very solid album that is sure to please long-time fans of the band and should hopefully turn on others as well. I don't think that what's on here is mind blowing in any way, but the songwriting is good, and the ambiance is pretty original, to me anyway. Definitely check this out if you like folk, neo-folk, or acoustic based music, you won't be disappointed by this.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Sunspot, Tear It Apart, The Lone Descent

Melted Cassettes - The Real Sounds From Hell Recordings (2011)

Band: Melted Cassettes
Country: West Glendale, Arizona
Style: Noise/Noise Rock
Label: Mind Flare Media

Right here we have another piece of interesting sound from the likes of Mind Flare Media. After listening to that Cheezface release earlier this year, which I was pretty luke-warm on, I could have only guessed what kind of noise this was going to be. Though, like I just stated, I did imagine it was some sort of noise.
Now, the first time I listened through this, I was quite shocked, because this was a lot better than what I had expected. I never much cared for the whole porno-grind aesthetic of some of these power-electronic groups and projects and luckily, this album makes almost no reference to those cheesy, stupid, and rather annoying sounds. Instead, what you get is a much more organized and interesting mix of noise, grindcore, electronic and industrial music, and at times even punk. I was quite entranced because the mixture, despite sounding rather random and unorthodox, actually managed to be pulled off convincingly for the better part of this album. A lot of these songs are short and thus manage to retain a high level of intensity consistently without loosing much steam along the way, which is something I don't really bring up all that often in these reviews, but I think it's important to say that even when these guys go full bore into noise, they're only in shorter bursts that are usually intermingling with more electronic sounds and beats.
This is just one of those albums that is going to make you rethink what noise rock technically is and can be. The genre of noise rock is pretty defined in this day and age, with some groups going out and exploring other territories, but I don't think I've heard anything as strange and bizarre as this coming from a noise rock sort of territory. I'll admit that a lot of these tracks do blur the lines between being "rock" based and electronic noise, but tracks like Altered Beatststs and A Year On The Toilet really bolster some interesting rhythms that just stuck with me as soon as I heard them. The distortion that is used on here just makes it sound very uncomfortable and uneasy, I don't think there's an instrument on here that isn't distorted in some way actually.
It's a very interesting album from a young group that has a lot of potential. This album is pretty broad, sonically, which could see them moving into any number of directions in the future, and I look forward to hearing them. Definitely check this out if you'd be interested in hearing noise rock go into electronic and noise, real noise, territory.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Shining Figures, Altered Beatststs, Xzrzrz