Metal Review's Latest Reviews

Melvins - Nude With Boots

[5.0][5.0][5.0]

Counting up all their albums (EPs LPs and collaborations) since their formation around 1983, the Melvins have unleashed 25 albums on the world. Nude With Boots marks number 26. That’s the type of prolific output that might make even old Johnny Cash take note. Admittedly, there’s a fair portion of this pool of Seattle sludge that I actually find unlistenable. The experimental, droning warbly “noise” albums they’ve put out interest me about as much as the big band vocal stylings of Michael Bublé, which is to say not at all. In fact I think they suck. The majority of Nude With Boots is far from the Melvins’ “noise experiment” albums of the past, and it certainly doesn’t suck.

In fact, it’s pretty goddamned good. It comes two years after the band absorbed bass guitarist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis for (A) Senile Animal. The duo, otherwise known as Big Business, stuck around for the present album in a rare display of member retention. [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Brian Sweeney

© 2008 Metal Review

Detrimentum - Embracing This Deformity

[4.5][5.0][5.0]

Synopsis:

Man, it's only July and 2008 might be one of the best years for death metal in recent memory, and England’s Detrimentum, while adding to this year’s bumper crop of excellent death metal, are, like Sarpanitum giving British death metal some measure of respect again.

Review:

In fact while listening to Embracing This Deformity I wondered why this wasn’t released on Leon Macy’s (Mithras) own Galactic Records label, along side Mithras, Sarpanitum, Scythian and such. But then I learned that Detrimentum (and former Gorerotted) drummer Jon Rushforth actually runs Grindethic Records.

Where Sarpanitum took Immolation’s sound and gave it their own character and energy, Detrimentum take the sound of older (Sylvain Houde era) Kataklysm as well as Cephalectomy; that’s to say highly orchestrated chaos with a surprising measure of melody amid the grinding and blasting vortex of complexity and b [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Erik Thomas

© 2008 Metal Review

Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe

[5.0][4.5][5.5]

Scar Symmetry has always seemed to have a slightly split fan base between those who like them for their melody and progression, and people who enjoy their more aggressive, death metal-oriented side. Obviously, the entire package appeals to many of their fans as well, and for the most part the contrast between heavy and light has worked well for the band. On Holographic Universe, this gathering of Swedish all-stars has taken an increasingly laid back path in comparison to past works, and the results might polarize their following even more than before.

When taken with no preconceived notions, Holographic Universe is an immediately decent album, but gets off to a rather slow start with the first couple tracks, methodically picking up momentum as things move forward from a songwriting standpoint. I believe “Trapezoid” and “Prism And Gate” are the strongest tracks to be heard, especially the extremely well-balanced, unyielding arrangement of the latter song with a nod to Meshuggah’s off-timed choppy riff p [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Jim Brandon

© 2008 Metal Review

Mourning Beloveth - A Disease For The Ages

[5.0][4.5][4.5]

Mourning Beloveth, from Ireland, trade in doom/death metal. It's that romantic and despondent early 90s sound: My Dying Bride, early Katatonia and Anathema, and now relative newcomers like Swallow the Sun and Daylight Dies. The guitars crunch and hang in the heavy air as riffs roll out like waves of molasses. Solos, when they appear, weep rather than wail and the tone is oppressively dark. A Disease for the Ages is crushingly suffocating music, and as death/doom goes, a prime cut of really good stuff.

This is my first time hearing this long-standing outfit (formed in 1992) but as the band doesn't stray far from their influences I immediately felt familiar with their sound. Luckily, what they do, they do very well, so the lack of originality didn't taint my experience in the least. I wanted bleak death/doom dirges and bleak death/doom dirges I got. The band does set themselves apart from other traders in the bleak and heavy in a few ways. First off, there seems to be more of [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Keith Fox

© 2008 Metal Review

Distorted - Voices From Within

[4.0][3.5][3.5]

As one of only a few Israeli metal bands with decent worldwide distribution, Distorted is interesting not only for its geographic location but for its ability to incorporate a smorgasbord of cultural elements into its sound. Fortunately, they manage to hone these variances into something more cohesive than some of their counterparts. If that's enough to warrant your attention is really a product of your own stylistic inclinations.

We often associate a gothic overtone with most metal bands with a female vocalist, and while Distorted does little to impede such an association, what little they do makes Voices From Within a far more interesting venture than the gothic tag would suggest. One could say that they do just enough to separate themselves from the absolute crap that plagues most treading similar territory. I mean, let's be honest: Outside of the pale, overweight and overly decorated full moons masquerading as humans that we see galavanting at "dark metal" shows, who likes that cheesy stuff anyways?

As important as Miri [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Chris Chellis

© 2008 Metal Review

Dead Congregation - Purifying Consecrated Ground (Reissue)

[4.5][5.0][5.0]

I believe it was Morbid Angel guitarist Trey Azagthoth who said that true death metal should sound like an oncoming storm; a dark thundercloud of brutally heavy riffs, thunderous drums, and inhuman vocals, creeping slowly through the sky to consume the listener whole. It seems that this element of morbid heaviness is absent in a lot of today’s death metal bands, who seem more focused on sweep-picking through as many notes as humanly possible, while anyone who listens to and enjoys old-school death metal knows that it’s the feeling that made the great music of the late 80’s/early 90’s so dark and intense, not just being as fast and technical as possible--see early Death, Immolation, and Autopsy. So it's great to see a young band like Dead Congregation focusing on heaviness and atmosphere over wankery and ridiculous speed, and even better when the end results are this brutally excellent. This, ladies and gents, is death metal the way it was meant to be played.

Hailing from Greece, Dead Congregation&rsq [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Chris McDonald

© 2008 Metal Review

Grand Magus - Iron Will

[6.0][5.5][6.0]

The powerful Swedish triumvirate known as Grand Magus began shifting n' rumbling with their appropriately-titled sophomore album, Monument. Thick-slabbed doom, pure as Odin's blood, pulsed and punched its way out from that record, triumphantly waving its hair and horns in the wind: a high-powered, apehangered Harley hulking its way across the pagan vastlands. The Magus brand of doom is/was that of freewheeling rock liberty, never bogged down by claptrap plod or woe-is-me pissaway, remaining stout and stonefooted though both mountains and caverns. This R-n-R pulse, however, simply was too wild, too powerful to be held in the limb-swallowing throes of doom metal. Their desire to rock hard and harder was simply too great, too overwhelming.

The resulting third album, Wolf's Return, was an energized foray into the realms of power and trad metal (only fitting, as doom IS the traditional heavy metal, is it not?), and was nearly universally worshipped by wordrakers and hornraisers alike. Led by the impassioned, soul-quaking voice of guitar [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Jordan Campbell

© 2008 Metal Review

Grand Magus - Iron Will

[6.0][5.0][5.0]

When I was a kid back in the early 80's, I used to spend countless afternoons flipping through the heavy metal section of the local record store near my house in Cleveland. Every now and again, someone would mistakenly file an album from a southern rock band called Molly Hatchet in that ol' metal bin, likely because of that band's decision to adorn their first two album covers with epically triumphant Frank Frazetta paintings. Despite not being familiar with the band's sound, I let that wicked Death Dealer sitting a-horse with curved blade in hand eventually coax the cash from my pocket, but when I got home and those southern-tinged rock tunes wafted through my speakers, I'd say I was more than just a little thrown off. I was honestly expecting my eardrums to get kicked to hell with something heavier; something meaner; and something you'd generally expect a big bearded biker to crank while ripping through a sixer of shit-canner beer. I basically wanted this album right here...

Iron Will is ass-whoopin'. The three Swede's that make [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Michael Wuensch

© 2008 Metal Review

Deadbird - Twilight Ritual

[5.5][5.0][5.0]

Where does one begin about a band such as Deadbird? It’s almost wrong to judge them. The huge rolling riffs, the enveloping melancholic atmosphere, and infectious yells seem to create a sound that is beyond critical thought. It feels criminal to even bring the question “Is it worth listening to?” anywhere near the mammoth Twilight Ritual. “Of course it is, can you not hear it? Now quit interrupting with inane questions,” was the response my brain had to even the slightest attempt to actually review the album. Even wanting to apply a quantitative numerical value to it feels rude, as if doing so would be tantamount to driving an iron stake through one of Deadbird’s thickly muscled hands, pinning a great beast from roaming free. As we all know, however, an album can’t be given a score of “Numbers Are Immaterial”, so get a good look at the thrashing behemoth before the stake is removed.

This is my first experience with Deadbird, so comparisons between Twilight Ritual [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Thomas Creager

© 2008 Metal Review

Coffins - Buried Death

[4.0][3.5][3.0]

While some bands in death metal nowadays proudly take their influences from the genre’s golden period of the early nineties, bands such as Tokyo’s Coffins prefer to go even further back. These dudes opt for death metal in its most primitive form; stripped of all technicality, merged with sludge, doom and a dash of stoner rock for good measure. Is it any good? Well, there is some fun to be had with Buried Death, but your enjoyment of Coffins will depend greatly on your tolerance for the extremely basic nature of their music.

Let’s start with the positives and firstly, Buried Death is satisfyingly heavy. The production is raw and nasty, with numerous layers of thick guitar noise. The playing, too, is very basic and often at languid tempos. Slower numbers like “Mortification to Ruin” have a definite doom/drone feel to them. Then there are songs like “Purgatorial Madness” and the title track that up the tempo considerably, in an old school thrash/punk vein. Unfortunately, tempo variations are p [Continue reading on Metal Review]

Written by: Michael Roberts

© 2008 Metal Review