Mnemic - Mnemesis (2012)

Band: Mnemic
Country: Aalborg, Denmark
Style: Industrial Metal/Groove Metal
Label: Nuclear Blast

You know, Mnemic is a band that I've had real trouble with within the last couple of years. I honestly do think their debut, Mechanical Spin Phenomena, is a really good album, it's not a masterpiece or anything like that, but for when it was released, I view it as a sort of pre-djent album. Since then, the band has not released an album that has come anywhere near it, but this one may indeed change it.
I'll be honest and say that Mnemic hasn't exactly been a band who's had a great track-record when it comes to releases in my book. Ever since their debut, I haven't enjoyed any of their albums beyond a couple of tracks, and I personally thought their 2010 album Sons of The System was easily one of the most boring albums of that year. By all accounts, the band seemed to be content in morphing themselves out of their unique pre-djent/industrial metal kind of sound into a more groove oriented melo-death band, which isn't a terrible thing, but their songs definitely suffered for it. Each release seemed to provide less memorable songs and hooks that were just lazy and dull. There was also a lack of visceral anger and intensity on albums following their debut, which I could definitely understand, but the loss of vocalist Michael Bøgballe after their second album also kind of made the band lose some of their personality, and his replacement Guillaume Bideau didn't exactly inspire a whole lot of confidence on either of the albums he was on. Then we have this album, with which I can't say I was anticipating all that much, as you might expect based on all of the above.
I'll just get it out of the way and say that I was definitely surprised by this album. In my opinion, the first five songs on Mechanical Spin Phenomena, so basically like half the album, are among the best songs the band has ever written; but instantly as I began listening to this album, one track after another, I found myself being wowed by the band. From track one to track seven, I can't say that there was a track that I didn't enjoy and that I haven't listened to over and over. They are most certainly not as interesting as the songs on the band's debut, but these songs are, at least in my opinion, extremely catchy and are best thing the band has produced in a very long time. I remember before the release of 2007's Passenger and again before Sons of The System, guitarist Mircea Gabriel Eftemie had said in interviews that, respectively, on those albums, the band was going to take their sound into heavier and more catchy directions, at least to me, that never happened. I was actually pretty fed up with him saying that, and never delivering on it. The songs on here finally do that, at least most of them, providing the some of the biggest and most memorable hooks the band has ever written. Tracks like Transcend and I've Been You feature giant choruses that stuck with me immediately after hearing them, which I is a first for any Mnemic song ever doing that to me.
In my opinion, Guillaume has always been a pretty solid vocalist, I've followed him since he was in Scarve, but a lot of the work he did on his first two releases with the band weren't exactly all that inspiring. It really felt like a guy just sort of going through the motions, not to say he didn't do that admirably, but on here, he just blows away pretty much anything else I've ever heard him do. He really presents a unique sort of personality through his vocals on here, which is something I never expected. Like I've said above, I do consider this band to be a pre-djent band, essentially doing the whole Meshuggah influence (on a bigger scale than just saying they were an influence) before it really blew up in the last couple of years, on here the band embraced a bit more of that modern palm-mute style on a couple of songs, the title-track and Ocean of Void. Not that it's probably the greatest change, but this album really isn't all that dark either. This is probably the band's most melodic work to date, and it's definitely reflected in the overall tone of the album, which is much brighter than dark.
I was very impressed with this album as I really didn't think I'd ever hear a quality record from Mnemic again (to be brutally honest). The last three songs weren't exactly up to par with the first seven, but I still thought they were pretty solid songs nonetheless. Definitely makes me glad I checked this album out.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: Transcend, I've Been You, There's No Tomorrow

Wastelanders - Cosmic Despair (2012)

Band: Wastelanders
Country: Chicago, Illinois
Style: Drone/Dark Ambient
Label: Basses Frequences/Space Idea/Calls and Correspondence/Hewhocorrupts Inc.

I don't know how someone like me has become able to cover drone, as up until only two years ago, the only bands I really knew about were Sunn 0))) and Earth. I'm not complaining though, I guess I've been rather fortunate to only hear solid to really good drone albums in these few years and so for that I'm only grateful. Though I wasn't really into the name of this project (sounded like a noise rock band to be honest) when I heard the music I was more than game to listen further.
There have been quite a few drone, noise, and ambient albums I've been listening to in the last couple of weeks (which either have already been posted or will be posted soon) and I have to say that this is one that I kept finding myself return to. The somber, but very straight-faced sort of drones that make up this album are very calming, almost relaxing at some points, and I haven't really found an album like that that managed to draw me in and keep me engaged like this one has. There are definitely still some noisy moments on here, but the majority of this release is slow moving ambiance driven music that just sort of glides more than it hammers, if you catch my drift. I'd totally understand it if someone told me that they could fall asleep while listening to this album because, honestly, it's not an album that's going to just reach out, grab you by the collar, and make you listen to it, you have to take the time to look and listen deeper. It's quiet, for the most part, and dreamy, I wouldn't even say that "it's music to fall asleep to" is bad at all, at least in this case.
The first half of the album dwells more in the realms of your typical dark ambient-esque drone with traces of noise hiding below the ambiance, but the second half, or the last two tracks, however you prefer to look at it, brings more of the chaos out into the forefront. I see all sorts of cool album titles and titles that suit the music on it, as well as plenty that are just sort of, "that's the title of the album," and nothing more, but seldom do I find/hear an album that manages to actually work as a whole with the artwork and have a title that works. The sounds on this album very much reflect what I could assume floating endlessly through space might be like. The early tracks are the peace of mind, the beauty of the stars and planets all around you, the solitude of nothingness and everything, while the later and longer tracks are the crushing solitude of the void swallowing you as you drift further and further into the blackness. By the end of the journey, you find yourself emerging on the other side (make of that what you will) and being taken over by an overwhelming sense of calm. That closing track, The Crossing, definitely ranks among the most beautiful tracks I've heard in a great while and is one of the few that manages to bring in a more jazzy style to the album. The almost minimalist post-rock-meets-free-jazz approach that the guitar is used on this track really just shows another side to the album, perhaps a more accessible one despite being the longer track on the album while the percussion is simply hypnotic.
It really is one of the better albums of this style that I can remember hearing in a long, long time. As of right now, I doubt you'll be able to find another album that is quite like this one, it's diverse without overcompensating for being an ambiance based drone album. I do believe this is a truly beautiful album that I'm hoping drone and ambient fans, maybe even post-rock and jazz fans, definitely check out.
Overall Score: 9
Highlights: The Beginning, The Crossing

Wraiths - Edinburgh/Glasgow (2012)

Band: Wraiths
Country: Edinburgh, UK
Style: Dark Ambient/Drone
Label: Land of Decay

I've only recently become familiar with Wraiths, both through this release and the collaboration they did with Pyramids, so very recently actually. I've heard good things about the band for a few years at this point but never really looked too much into them before getting this tape. Along with a handful of other more likeminded artists, I've been trying to become familiar with the older material in Wraiths discography.
I guess based on what the other tapes that Land of Decay had released at the same time as this one, I kind of assumed that it would be a more noisy affair, and I can say that I was both correct and incorrect. Sonically, yes, these are noise pieces, but they're also so much more. The two improvised sets/pieces certainly reflect an overall dreary, and at times dreadful, mood that I can certainly imagine while they play in the background. The wall of warping noise accompanied with screeching industrial feedback certainly does paint quite a picture. When it comes to improvisation, at least for myself, I find that it either works because a piece is able to maintain a similar flow despite various shifts in tone and mood, among other things, throughout, or it doesn't because the artist(s) keep moving things around which makes it hard to follow anything in particular. This is more of the former, though I'm not going to deny that some people may say it's of the latter. While I personally found Edinburgh the better of the two because of its consistently melancholic mood and almost ambient kind of approach, I certainly respect the more noisy approach taken on Glasgow. Both tracks are absolutely drenched in reverb, whether or not this came naturally from the room they were playing in or was later added in post-production, it definitely works to the advantage of the tracks, adding a bleaker sense of roundness to them.
I really enjoyed this tape and it does what all good first introductions should do, make me want to hear more. These guys certainly know how to make a show sounding interesting, at the very least, and it makes me interested in seeing them play live as well. Definitely worth trying to find a copy of if you're into more droning forms of industrial and ambient music.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Edinburgh

Halalnihil - Global Uterus Annihilation (2012)

Band: Halalnihil
Country: Pest Megye, Hungary
Style: Blackened Noise/Power Electronics
Label: Independent

It's a little strange to me that the further one goes into the style of black metal, the less "black" it becomes and the more experimental acts you find. This new project was sent to me by the main man himself and really did something I didn't expect to hear. It was certainly a unique little project and one that I knew I had to cover.
When I was first told about this project I was told that it was a mix between power electronics, harsh noise, and raw black metal, and to be honest, as much as I find it hard to really rely on what an artist describes their own music as sounding like, that wasn't too far off the mark in this case. This is an intense barrage of noise that rarely relents. Most of the tracks tend to be under three minutes, pumping out quick spurts of various fusions of the genres mentioned above. While every track presents a different take on those genres, whether they're being fused together or are more individualistic excursions on the single genre, you get everything from your typical screaming into a distorted mic with tons of feedback backing it up to piercing noise (and feedback) interrupting spasms of black metal. It honestly sounded like some decided to throw Prurient, early Mayhem demos and the classic trilogy of Darkthrone records, and the first couple of Agoraphobic Nosebleed records into a meat-grinder and churn out these ideas before dumping the results into a blender. I know that may sound a bit convoluted and strange, but it's a really bizarre sounding project, and that's one of the easiest ways I could really describe it.
I can't say that all the ideas present on here are great, as with most projects of this sort of style, songs that are under a minute, or even under two, don't really leave too much of an impression. Longer tracks tend to explore more territory and present more of a well rounded and complete idea instead of a single statement. Not to say that the short tracks are lacking in terms of ideas, each one does show at least a willingness to both stay true to a genre's conventions while exploring a bit more. Personally, I wasn't too fond of some of the drum programming on here because it sounds way too mechanical for my own personal taste, in addition to the speeds its playing at (which is why I referenced Agoraphobic Nosebleed above), I just couldn't get into it. Granted, all of these minor complaints do help to make up the sound of the project and help to create a sound that I really can't say I've heard before. There are certainly moments where I kind of hear a bit of Ash Pool or Sutekh Hexen, but those are only minor at best. This album tends to favor the noise and power electronics side over the black metal one though.
Chances are if you like your music intense, noisy, and distorted beyond recognition, you'll really enjoy this. Because of how underground it is, I really don't see a whole lot of people checking this out (hopefully at least a couple people will get into it from this review), but those who are open to styles like the ones I mentioned will find a project/album that was well worth checking out. There are a lot of projects now that are doing the whole noise and black metal fusion, but this is definitely one of the better ones.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Iron Rain On Your Father's Grave, Fogyatékos Megerőszakolása, Mourning Saints Watching My Erection, Állatkínzók, Gyerekgyilkosok, Visszatérő Álmok

Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion (2012)

Band: Storm Corrosion
Country: London, UK/Stockholm, Sweden
Style: Psychedelic Folk/Ambient
Label: Roadrunner

Yes, the long awaited collaboration between Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt has finally been released to the public after several years of speculation. I don't think that the idea of the two men working together had anyone worried, it wasn't until this album was announced that I think fears began to creep into the public's consciousness. I somehow doubt that anyone really thought that this is what the result would have been, no matter how big a fan you were of the two men or how long you followed this project.
The result of the two musicians collaborating was one that was subject to debate once the two announced that they would one day do something together. I'm sure many probably assumed the result would be something of a fusion between the likes of Opeth and Porcupine Tree, but obviously a little different because the two would be influencing each other. Even after videos and statements had been released where both men spoke of how much the record was going to be influenced by the likes of Comus, Scott Walker, and soundtracks from the 70s, I still saw a whole lot of people talking about how this record would ultimately just wind up sounding like both men's main bands, but a little different. The whole premise, I guess you could call it, of this record completing the trilogy that began with Heritage and Grace For Drowning, is one that I'm sure worried some who weren't fans of at least Opeth's contribution in that saga, and probably gave some form of indication of where this record might have gone musically. Not that I ever saw this coming, but I would love to just point this in the face of every person who thought this would wind up sounding like a variation on either of the men's main bands. Though every side project is different, I kind of wish that this is the route that more collaboration collectives would go about writing music.
Listening to a record like this really reaffirms how great each of these men are. Sure, if you're a fan of either of their respective bands, projects, or whatever, you probably already hold one or both of them in pretty high regards, but this record shows that they can succeed in writing something that is very much against the grain of mainstream metal/music as well as against what either of them has created before. While I'm sure this record wasn't totally devoid of its rock influences, I have a very hard time calling this a "rock" record, let alone a "metal" one. The use of strings, acoustic guitar, and synth playing is really something to behold. It's really a beautiful record, more than anything else at least in my opinion. There are sections of dissonance and more abstract ideas, but as a whole, this is easily one of the most hauntingly beautiful records I've heard this year. As much as I love really weird and avant-garde music and various forms of extreme metal, I find myself being drawn more and more to records that aren't anywhere near as heavy or outright weird and more to music like this, where it's more about atmosphere and depth than almost anything else. I'm a huge Scott Walker fan (just throwing that out there), and I'd imagine that anyone who is a fan of his, or has at least heard some of his more recent material (either of the records he released in the last two decades), could hear the influence he's had on this project. The title-track alone owes so much to his later work, not to the extent that it's a rip-off, but it's very noticeable. Also, I've heard/seen quite a few people say that this record depressing, and while I'll certainly agree that it's dark and ominous in some instances, I never really found it to be depressing at all. On the contrary actually, tracks like Happy and Ljudet Innan sounded almost uplifting to me, but maybe I'm just weird.
One thing that I didn't get from any of my listens through the album and am only realizing as I am currently writing this is how different each track manages to be without sounding like it belongs on another record. The more orchestral sound that opens up the album on Drag Ropes, the krautrock-ish groove that carries Hag, or the ambiance that climaxes on Ljudet Innan, despite how each track differs from the ones around it, they all fit together into a cohesive unit. I think it's a feature that really stands out only now is because when you're, or me in this particular instance, focused on a single song you kind of just think of it a single piece, and when you just take the album for what it is, you're just looking at the overarching similarities between the tracks, but when you kind of put both in perspective, you really notice the differences and the similarities, and how well the two work together on here (sorry if that sounds really convoluted and weird). On a side-note, I kind of thought that Mikael would be singing a bit more on here, but I can't really say that I'm disappointed with the outcome.
It's probably obvious where I stand on this record by now, I think it's a really great piece of work that is definitely something different. I doubt I've said anything that hasn't already been said before but hey, more publicity for stuff like this the better. More people need to hear about good music. If you're one of the few who hasn't already heard this record, definitely do yourself a favor and listen to this, it's not metal, but, as it turns out, it's better than most of the metal records to come out this year anyway.
Overall Score: 9.5
Highlights: Every Track Is A Highlight

Naglfar - Téras (2012)

Band: Naglfar
Country: Umeå, Sweden
Style: Melodic Black Metal
Label: Century Media

Looking back about five years ago, I really wasn't too big into black metal. I liked some of the bigger and more standard bands, but anything that didn't have clean vocals or featured a lot of blasting, I just wasn't into. I remember buying some video compilation and a Naglfar video happened to be on it, and I was totally blown away by it (but not in a good way). It took years for me to finally grasp Naglfar.
I'm not going to say that Naglfar has since become one of my favorite black metal acts, but I can say with certainty that I do enjoy their albums. It was a little surprising to find out that this was their first release in about five years, I had always thought that they had just been releasing stuff on a regular basis or were touring a lot, guess not. Now that the band has been reduced to a core trio, it seems like a lot of people are foaming at the mouth due to the heightened songwriting demonstrated on here. I had read more about this record than I think I expected to, and before actually listening to it, so I kind of knew what I was getting myself into when listening to this. I've never been the biggest fan of melodic black metal, or at least bands that have been tagged that way, if only because it never felt quite as exciting as the more kvlt style or as interesting as some of the more experimental acts, and I turn to melo-death and traditional heavy metal if I want to hear big guitar melodies. Not to say I'm totally against the genre, I just can't help what I like.
Since I became a Naglfar fan during this five year period of absence (in terms of releases), this was my first Naglfar record where I could really think about what the band were doing in comparison to their previous records instead of just letting it play. I have to say that this release did surpass my expectations for it, even though I had read that it was a very good album from numerous sites. While it still doesn't surpass Sheol in my opinion, I do think that it is certainly one of the band's best releases. The melodies on here don't feel contrived in any way (which is one of the reasons I typically don't tend to like this sub-genre) and feel quite appropriate for the various ways they're used on here, whether it's used more of in a chorus sort of way or just as a break from the more visceral tremolo picked riffs, the band do a very admirable job. Despite all of this, it's not like I can pretend like I haven't heard some of the ideas used on here before. Of course there are ideas that have been done hundreds of times and are now genre staples, I can deal with that, but tracks like The Monolith or The Dying Flame of Existence stood out in this regard because they are slower and have more of an atmospheric touch to them that makes them stand out when coupled with the more "standard" Naglfar faster tracks. I will never say those tracks are bad though, or even that they hold back the album, I actually really like the latter track, I just think that the band could have done them a little bit better, or added a little bit more of their own personality to them. I just happen to think that when the band are going over faster tempos, they tend to produce some more memorable riffs and melodies, which just shows more of a comfort level in that sort of dynamic more than anything else. They pull both ends off well as far as I'm concerned though.
It's definitely a better record than I ever expected to hear from Naglfar, so I'm more than glad that I decided to give this record a shot. I somehow doubt that it's going to blow open a whole lot of walls, but it's the type of record that I could definitely see attracting a lot of new fans to the band. If you happen to enjoy big melodies and tightly performed black metal, this is a record you really shouldn't miss out on.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: An Extension of His Arm and Will, Come Perdition, The Dying Flame of Existence

Aggression - Viocracy (2012)

Band: Aggression
Country: Barcelona, Spain
Style: Technical Thrash Metal
Label: Xtreem Music

I've said it a lot but I figure for reiteration's sake I'll do it again and say that I'm not a big fan of thrash metal. I just can't get into most of it, sorry if it's a little unfair to call it too unoriginal most of the time but I like to hear variety among bands, not the same band from twenty/thirty years ago being played, essentially, covers by a new band. Knowing all of this, I still decided to give this band a shot.
In my opinion, while genres like black and doom metal have evolved since their inceptions, even death metal has, I really haven't seen thrash evolve beyond maybe grindcore, but at this point, a lot of grind bands don't even reference thrash. It's remained a genre that, to me, hasn't gotten any better with age and remains a genre where I'd much rather just listen to the classics than anything new that's coming out. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have covered this if I didn't see it tagged with the label of "technical thrash", which caught my attention. Not that that tag has ever caught my attention before, but I took a shot and listened to a song before deciding to check out the rest of the album' and I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. What came out of my speakers from opener False Flags, which was the song I checked out to see if I wanted to hear more of this album, wasn't so much a rip-off of 80's Exodus, Metallica, and Slayer, as much as a modern, and updated, mixture of thrash, early death metal, and a little bit of fusion. If I was to compare these guys to any other band, I'd say they're closer to what Atheist was doing early on in their career. Sure, you'll still hear riffs that are more likely to come from the influence of bands like the ones listed above, but the songs are far more interesting and don't sound as predictable. In my opinion, even the vocalist sounds a bit like Kelly Shaefer, only a little bit cleaner.
One of the only reasons I return to the any thrash metal albums at all is because the riffs are good. Like good thrash records and bands should provide, this record has got riffs. I'm sure some might not dig this as much as a record from bands like Warbringer or Evile because these guys tend to change a riff up more often than either of those bands do, or really most modern thrash "revival" bands to be honest, and maybe that's why I enjoy this record more so. These guys also know how to craft some solid hooks as well, tracks like MK Ultra and Human Nature definitely stood out not only due to having some pretty solid riffs but also because the choruses were instantly memorable. Most of the tracks, despite shifting their riffs and throwing in the weird riff every now and then, are fairly straightforward and still deliver most songs in a pretty standard intro-verse-chorus-verse format. The only track that threw me off was closer, Victims of Bias, which is a strange instrumental track that embraces the likes of jazz-fusion and blues rock into its structure. None of the sections are performed badly at all, but it just seemed a bit strange to throw in those sort of sections into the album closer. Personally, I would have loved to have heard more of those ideas thrown into the rest of the album, but maybe next time.
I'm not going to claim that this is the most unique or even interesting band out there, or even that the ideas on here haven't been done before, but these guys are talented and know how to write good songs and riffs, which is more than I can say for their peers. I don't cover thrash all that often because a lot of it is just recycled, this has personality and more, I'd recommend this over a hell of other thrash records that get way more hype. If you happen to enjoy thrash metal, definitely check this out, it's probably one of the only new thrash albums I've enjoyed in a good while.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: False Flags, MK Ultra, Human Nature