Halalnihil - Pyrocumulonimbus (2012)

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

I reviewed Halalnihil's previous full-length Global Uterus Annihilation a few months ago on here and thought that it was pretty decent. Well, since then, mainman Inhos has been really busy making several new recordings. I was offered by him to cover his Freedom Destroyer EP but figured I'd just do this one because I made him wait.
Since his last full-length, Inhos has decided to forgo the black metal influence on Halalnihil and just dive into straight-up noise and power electronics. For me, I can't say that improved my perspective on the project. Though it did remove some problems that I found on his last full-length, it also managed to create a few more. I thought Global Uterus Annihilation, while flawed, had a nice set of ideas when combining intense, and at times slightly annoying, power electronics over a sort an overly distorted and chaotic black metal base, and it had a certain tone that made it feel very nihilistic and overblown, but it a good sense and I have to say that since that's been removed, the project does feel a little less unique. There are so many other projects out there that are doing straight-up harsh noise and power electronics already, and this album just didn't feel all that different. It still has the nihilistic streak that I find endearing, but it just doesn't have that sense of absolute rage and disregard for life that I found on his last full-length.
Having said that, it has to be made aware that this is a far more listenable album than some of Inhos' previous works. The noise is not so overbearing and loud that it ever becomes ear-piercing or annoying. I'm sure that might have been the draw for some listeners, but not me. Sure, a track like Humiliation For All Ages contains that high-pitched frequency that I frankly find quite annoying at the best of times, but due to the relatively short lengths of these tracks, it didn't ever get to the point where I had to actively shut the record off (also, Inhos has produced far more annoying noises in the past). On the positive side though, I did like the spoken word segments on here, Inhos has a nice tone to his voice and it fit very well during the low key introduction of a track like Prostitution Tragedy. I'd say that I'd like to hear the project introduce even more quieter or ambient moments into the music as I think when the music falls into a more silent sequence, it made the intense noise that followed it all the more powerful. Yes, that's something you can say for nearly every style of music out there, but it remains as true for this project as it can for almost any other band/project/collective out there. Even though the nearly ten minute long title-track is unabashedly brutal for essentially it's entire length, there are like one-second long stops where the noise will break and then start up again. Sure they're short and are probably more coincidental than anything else, but they work to the advantage of at least keeping the damn thing interesting for it's entirety.
I know that this review probably came off a bit dismissive and maybe even negative, but I actually don't think this album is bad at all. It's a bit less interesting than Inhos' previous material (that I've heard), but it's also more palatable to a first-time listener. I can't say it's an improvement over his last full-length, but it if you dig harsh noise, power electronics, or other stuff like that, give this a listen, you'll probably enjoy this.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Looking For Love Through Vomit-Soaked Values, Prostitution Tragedy, Pyrocumulonimbus

Utarm - Apocryphal Stories (2012)

Band: Utarm
Country: Kusa, Norway
Style: Experimental Black Metal/Blackened Noise
Label: Handmade Birds

It's sort of strange when I think about how long it's taken me to write up this review for this album since it was an album I was eagerly awaiting as soon as I heard HMB was releasing it. Utarm is one of the first hybrid projects I had heard to fuse noise and black metal together, so it does hold a special place in my heart. But since you're currently reading this, it means that I finally got off my ass and got around to writing this.
In the past, I have always viewed Utarm's work to be a sort of experimental form of black metal with aspects of noise, but I guess it only hit me after listening to this record that that view has been wrong all this time. Utarm has not been a highly experimental form of black metal, but a very intense and melancholic form of noise music. Certainly it borrows from black metal, but this record, perhaps more than any other, made me think of noise music artists more than black metal ones whilst listening to the album. This album is much more of an explosion of distortion than it is of warped effects, which is perhaps what led to that shift in view. I certainly found this to be a far more intense and alienating listen than any of the project's past material, which by no means was easy listening, but this was like a new level in terms of making the album difficult to get into. Though I think it's pretty agreeable that none of Utarm's past material has been exactly memorable, there was always that through-line that really made that black metal element seem tangible and was, at least for me, an entrance into the project, I do not think that the same could be said of this record. It's just a very hard-nosed assault of "negative" emotions that, in all honesty, might be too much for some people to get into.
Being that there are only five tracks, it would be a safe bet if you came into it assuming, at least based solely on what I mentioned above, that this would blow your eardrums out through copious amounts of distortion and noise. In the case of the first two tracks on here, you actually would not be incorrect, as they are brutal and extreme pieces of extended blackened noise which could prove as torturous to some as Nattramn's vocals in Silencer. And while that doesn't change too much, it sort of peaks out on the album centerpiece, Black Light Aeon Apocryphia, where things take a slightly more avant-garde-ish turn. It isn't so much a tonal or even stylistic shift, but more of a movement into other areas. There appears to be less of an emphasis placed on sonic bombardment and more on atmosphere, and it shows through the occasional ambient break or more experimental sound thrown in during the opening moments of the track. The last two tracks then take things into a much more, and I know it's going to sound odd using this word in the context of this album but, meditative style. Things become less intense and not quite so bleak and take a more streamlined noise approach while the background is what becomes the point of interest as more and more ambient textures are brought in and taken out throughout the course of the two tracks.
This is not an album I expect people to jump right onto, hell, I'm not even totally on board with this one yet, but give it time and it will grow on you. It's a great piece of work for all those people who consider them noise fans who are too abstract for metal while interesting enough to intrigue the metal guys who are looking for something really "underground". But whatever your tastes actually happen to be, if you like intense music, give this one a listen.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: Of Rape, Solitude and Bliss; The Triangle of Flesh, Above Death

Incantation - Vanquish In Vengeance (2012)

Band: Incantation
Country: Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Style: Death Metal
Label: Listenable

In recent years, more and more bands are taking on board Incantation influences, leading up to what some people have started to call "cavecore". But there's nothing that can substitute for the original, and Incantation have returned after six years with a new full-length. I had almost given up hope of the band releasing a full-length again before hearing that they were signed to Listenable.
What's great is that so many of these "cavecore" groups focus on the atmosphere and slowness of Incantation, and that, whether in response to it or otherwise, this album is filled with fast-paced death metal songs. This is among the best the genre has done all year, with riffs that either call back to more tried and true style of their past or the more weird and, I guess you could say, off ones that so many bands overlook in favor of sounding like they're playing in a reverberant cave. Where Incantation have always succeed is that they never relied on drenching their sound in reverb to sound menacing and atmospheric, it all came from mood and tempo shifts, demonstrated early on in the album on Ascend Into The Eternal. The riffs are great and quite memorable for the most part, which is great to hear since I can't say that I was really into the couple of full-lengths before this one. There's definitely no shortage of riffs on here, with the band interchanging riffs that call to pretty much every form of extreme metal (death, doom, black, and a bit of thrash) which is sure to please those who enjoy lots of variety in their riffs styles. This album just has that quality that made me think of the band at their prime early on in their career.
The production on here is pretty clean, but still comes across as sounding natural. It's a very unfussy sounding recording where you have each instrument in its respective place and not much else. Unlike many of the bands they've influenced (in recent years) the sound of this is not muddy or damp sounding, but very thick and low sounding. I'd say it's more representative of power than atmospherics, but that's just me. The band still balance both, the production leaned more on the band's delivery than the result of the delivery - if that makes any sense. I was actually surprised by the sound when I first played the album because I guess I was expecting the band to sort of make the ultimate "cavecore" album and show all their younglings how it's done, but that is not where the band decided to go at all. In a sense I'm relieved that they didn't go that route because it could be seen as a cash-in/sell-out move to capitalize on the success that that sound has been achieving recently, but disappointed because I would have liked to have heard the band adapt their sound to that style and really demonstrate how to do it - but that turned out not to occur. Even the doomy aspects to the band's sound don't ever really come across in that reverb heavy manner, and instead, as I mentioned above, create an ambiance naturally through their riffs and through extended and droning chords, which can be heard most obviously on closer Legion of Dis. Personally, I think I liked the sound of the album more when the band were just riffing away than when they were droning away, just because I thought that the production sound didn't mesh as well with the feedback and droning chords on that track in particular as well as it did with the faster forms of aggression, but that's just me.
While it's no masterpiece, I think it is among the band's best work, especially within the last decade. The band sound fresh and revitalized throughout these ten songs, pumping out some of their best material to date. I think that this is a much hear record if you consider yourself a death metal fan. Do not pass up the opportunity to listen to this album.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: Progeny of Tyranny, Vanquish In Vengeance, Legion of Dis

Barren Waste - A Unified Idea Spilt Into Meaningless Pieces EP (2012)

Band: Barren Waste
Country: Milford, New Hampshire
Style: Psychedelic Death Metal
Label: Independent

Barren Waste are a group who emailed me months and months ago asking for this review, and I am finally getting around to it. It wasn't for any particular reason that I waited so long, I just got sidetracked and more and more things came to the forefront of my attention. With that being said, the band have sent me numerous of their releases since then, but this is still the one I'll cover.
Depending on how straight-up you like your death metal, you may either think this is the most creative and inventive thing in the world, or you'll absolutely hate it. Barren Waste is a project that experiments a lot in other genres including drone, industrial noise, ambient, and more free-form ways of musical expression, so it wouldn't be incorrect if you assumed that their take on death metal was a bit skewed as well. The riffs in songs appear to have more in common with blues than death metal, occasionally breaching into what sounds like post-rock as well, while the vocals are definitely kept within the boundaries of extremeness through the use of hoarse and throaty roars and yells. Now, I'm sure that doesn't sound completely terrible to anyone, I'm sure plenty of people could dig bluesy death metal, but then there's the kicker. The entire thing is covered in psychedelic effects. Whether it be traditional phazers or flangers or choruses, among other sounds as well, it's not going to be to everyone's taste. The bass led Mirthless has some distorted chugs but you have this folky guitar melody being played over the whole thing, and that would sound odd no matter what genre you're playing in - and it needs to be said that I'm underselling it. Believe me, the rest of the EP is just as weird, with electronic beats, spastic guitar solos, and industrial noise being used in various songs along the way as well.
In the end it's an interesting piece of work at the very most, but I would like to hear more focus on songwriting than sonic experimentation. The duo is pretty prolific at releasing material and I would like to see them release a cohesive full-length at one point instead of EPs with a bunch of ideas. But if you're into bizarre sounding metal or psychedelic music in any way, take a listen to this and see if you can get into it.
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: Sky Erodes, Golden With Rust

Hooded Menace - Effigies of Evil (2012)

Band: Hooded Menace
Country: Joensuu, Finland
Style: Death/Doom Metal
Label: Relapse

I think that Hooded Menace are a really great band who do great things for the death metal genre. They were a part of that old-school death metal revival several years back but have really turned into something special. This, their third full-length, follows on the tails of the great Never Cross The Dead album, which I absolutely loved.
Over the years, it has appeared to me that Hooded Menace have grown closer and closer to being a doom metal band over a death/doom group, which is actually quite a stupid thought on my part because even listening back to the group's 2008 full-length debut, Fulfill The Curse, the band always exhibited the penchant for doom over death metal. My assumption may have stemmed from the fact that this album feels more like a doom metal record more than a death metal one, except for the vocals. A lot of the riffs really remind me of early Black Sabbath, Candlemass, and Paradise Lost, which is never a bad thing, and the band have certainly showcased these influences in the past as well, along with the obvious inclusions of Asphyx and early Katatonia, but this album feels a lot closer to the doom genre than the band has been before. Maybe it's just me, maybe not, but that's the vibe I got while listening to this. The melodies feel even more morose and the grooves even lower, and the same could be said of the vocals as well, but the band has removed a lot of that visceral immediacy and outright brutality in favor for more punishing slowness and groove. I felt like the two were met quite nicely on Never Cross The Dead, which was slow for the majority of its running time, but knew when to speed up just enough to take things off the ground level.
Don't mistake my criticism for me disliking this album, because I certainly do like it, it just doesn't have that flair of death metal that I thought their older material had. In many ways this album reminded me of another album from a Finnish group I enjoy, Amorphis. Tracks like In The Dead We Dwell and Evoken Vulgarity really take me back to the first time I heard a release like Tales From The Thousand Lakes, or, to a lesser extent, Nespithe from Demilich. Granted, those albums differed quite a lot in style from this one, with the latter being far more technical while the former being much more melodic, and this one still being based quite heavily in grooves, there are stylistic comparisons throughout the album where I was reminded of those two groups quite specifically. Though there are certainly still plenty of melodic moments throughout this album. Maybe I'm leaning too much on older Finnish death metal records, because Hooded Menace certainly do have their own voice, but on here I didn't get the sense that it was as clear as it has been in the past. I wouldn't say it's been obscured, but more like they aren't quite saying what they want to in the clearest manner. It feels more convoluted, in a sense. Like they're trying too hard to make these songs interesting all the while writing songs that don't really go much of anywhere. The best songs on here, in my opinion, keep things heavy and relatively straightforward, they're not necessarily the shortest songs, but they get their points across the clearest and the best.
I was only mildly disappointed by this album because it doesn't stay with me in the way that their previous full-length, or even some of the tracks they've provided on splits with other groups have. There aren't many bands who do this style as well as Hooded Menace do it, even older and more experienced groups, and so even when I'm let down by an album like this, I'd still say it's better than a majority of other bands pedaling the same thing to you. It's still a very good death/doom record that is a must for all fans of the genre and certainly worth checking out if you haven't already.
Overall Score: 8
Highlights: Vortex Macabre, Curses Scribed In Gore, Evoken Vulgarity

Doppler - Apophenia: Type I Error (2012)

Band: Doppler
Country: Madrid, Spain
Style: Industrial Metal
Label: Mighty Music

This was one of those albums that I just happened to stumble across one day and thought the cover art was pretty interesting looking. Based on where I did stumble across them, I had half expected them to be more in line with djent. I can tell you that if that throws you off, have no fear, because that's not ultimately what wound up on here.
Truthfully, it's sort of become a kind of worrisome process when I happen to find a band that's called "industrial metal" because of where djent has taken the metal genre in the last couple of years, industrial metal could essentially be a djent-by-numbers band with some electronic ideas thrown into the mix. So when I first decided to listen to this, because of where I found out about the band, I was expecting something in that area, and actually, it wasn't too far off. Granted, this is not a typical djent band and is surprisingly closer to Fear Factory than Meshuggah, but there are still come of those djent influenced breakdowns here and there. It's not going to wind any medals for originality or uniqueness, but opener Pareidolia actually did a good job at setting the tone for the rest of the album. It's groove based for sure, but the tone of the guitars and the atmosphere of the entire record give off that sort of late 90s and early 00s industrial metal, and I do mean that in a good way. The electronic elements aren't actually as overwhelming as they very well could have been, and have been in several experiences, and I did think that was a good decision on the band's part for choosing to not drench the record in trance, rave, and house synth sounds.
I have to mention the use of guttural growls on here though because I was actually taken aback when I first heard them on Asynchronous Forms. I'm certainly not opposed to them, but anyone who looks around at this site will be able to figure out that I'm not exactly a huge fan of bands that make use of them, but when used in moderation, I don't have any problem with them. Frankly they happen to lie on the border between deathcore-esque pig squeals and brutal death metal gutturals but I wasn't overly annoyed by their presence because they weren't overused. However stylistically, as the album progresses, the album does begin to show more and more of a deathcore kind of vibe, which I have to say was kind of disappointing. I can deal with the vocals, they're not really my cup of tea but they're not overused, but the over reliance on some of deathcore's rather insistent breakdowns I did not enjoy. A song like The Delivery and The Giant would have been pretty damn good until it decided to veer off into more -core influenced territory during it's conclusion. However, the Falling trilogy of tracks that close the album definitely show a lot of potential for not only experimenting with slightly more progressive ideas but also letting the instrumental portion of the band take the lead for longer breaks of time. This is the direction I'd love to hear the band continue down in the future.
I think that this is a pretty solid debut. It's not perfect, but as far as modern industrial metal releases go, it's definitely worth looking into if you're into that stuff. Fans of industrial metal, deathcore, math metal, and maybe even metalcore fans will dig this (so pretty much if you like modern metal).
Overall Score: 7
Highlights: Asynchronous Forms, Falling I: The Jump, Falling III: The Current

GOG - Ironworks (2012)

Band: GOG
Country: Arizona
Style: Blackened Noise/Drone
Label: Utech

Earlier this year Bjella released the highly praised album In Our Architecture This Resounds to which I sort of ignored because of all the hype surrounding it. I have since reconsidered my thoughts on that. But, figured that covering this album would perhaps be a bit more poignant at this point since it would take time to receive a copy of the aforementioned album in the mail.
Only having casually listened to GOG's previous releases, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect coming into this record. I really enjoyed his collaboration with William Fowler Collins last year, but I had kind of guessed that this record would not resemble that album too much. So when I pressed play and 1870-1906 began with a very black metal kind of vibe, I was downright surprised. Previous albums that I had heard had revealed no black metal influence to me, free jazz, intense noise and drone, avant-garde composition, yes, but not black metal; and yet that tremolo sounding guitar part that underlines the track just caught my attention and kept it there throughout the entire track even after it had faded away into an industrial backdrop. The entire album then proceeded to scramble my mind by shifting gear back into GOG's primary method of performance and audio destruction, though to my ears it was noticeably more accessible. I found myself more engaged with it, and far more interested in what was happening than I can recall ever having been when listening to the previous full-lengths from the project. That may just be a result of my state of mind, but the music itself I found more graspable and far more palpable to my own tastes.
To my ears, this album actually reminded me a little bit of Locrian (and I can only pray that a collaboration between GOG and Locrian eventually happens), and I mean that with the highest possible praise. Though I did not find this release quite as dark as a lot of Locrian's material, this album brought with it the same sort of abstract blending of black metal and noise and drone - and I do hold Locrian to a very high standard, so I don't compare other groups/projects to them lightly. GOG brings the darkness, but more low-end somberness than I think Locrian have aimed for on their more recent releases. There's also a comparison to be made to Mamiffer with the piano lines strewn throughout the album as well. But to me, apart from all the comparisons that can be made, this album turned out to be a meditation. For me it was a sort of meditation on repression and anguish, I'm sure for others it would be something completely different. Both through its use of black metal-tinged aggression and occasional howled vocal and it's more morose drone/noisescapes and piano led sections it strung together a coherent piece that was able to express a sense of restrained pain and anger without ever really exploding into outright chaos. And if that was all it did, that would still make this record a success. But there's also that layer of hiding it, making this record seem like it's the sort that is just soundscape after soundscape that blurs into each other, but when you look deeper (actually, if you just look beyond the surface you'll see it) you'll find a record with loads of depth and ideas that just make each track an absolute pleasure to behold and listen to.
Even though I wasn't overly on with GOG's previous albums, I thought this one was just a sublime piece of work. Even though I think it's Bjella's most accessible release to date from the project, that still isn't saying that it's going to appeal to a mass audience. If you happen to enjoy experimental drone and noise, and even the more ambient side of black metal, I highly recommend you check this album out.
Overall Score: 9.5
Highlights: Every Track Is A Highlight