“WOW” is the first thing that comes to mind when I press play on the new Celeste album. the line between screamo and black metal isn’t there any more. this is furious modern black metal of the absolute highest quality. but then enter the vocals, the sound alters slightly, and we’re back in that ever so lucent screamo/black metal border territory. while Celeste certainly are comparable to their countrymen Daïtro and Amanda Woodward, there’s something entirely different about them. if you take screamo and black metal – two already ugly as fuck genres – and fuse them together, you get the raw, dissonant and filthy mess of insanity that is Celeste. away with the typical dynamics of modern screamo, welcome loud and suffocating monotony, and an end result that is thicker than doom metal and more atonal than sludge. a depressing 41 minutes of nihilistic and misanthropic melancholy that will blow you away if you haven’t heard this band before (in which case I’d recommend you download the rest of their discography as well, available further down). on the other hand, if you have heard them before – you probably know what to expect. this album isn’t a giant leap in terms of musical style, by any means. it’s rather yet another step towards perfection. and let me assure you – Celeste are getting so close, it’s scary. scary, like the enraged wrath that unfolds onto the listener through this hateful album. it shows no mercy, whatsoever. you need to get this. and like the like the rest of their stuff, you can order it at their record label Denovali.
archive for the ‘metal/metalcore’ category
Celeste – Morte(s) Nee(s)
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010categories: emo, metal/metalcore, progressive/epic, screamo
Auguries of Innocence – Demo
Friday, March 26th, 2010well I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time. for those of you who hang on the forums (you lurker, you!), you’re probably aware of the sad disbanding of mamma, jeg blör… – so it is with great pleasure I introduce you to Auguries of Innocence. Mats played guitar and sang/screamed in mamma, jeg blör… – and now he sings/screams/growls/shrieks/whatever in Auguries of Innocence, a five piece deathcore act. and he does so with great skill and diversity, not unlike how every other member perform his key role to perfection. because let me assure you, everything is handled with the utmost care on this demo. Auguries of Innocence settles for nothing but perfection. the energetic drumming takes command and pummels the band through each of the compositions firmly with all of the corresponding breakdowns and tempo shifts. on top of this, the band has put ultra-melodic guitar riffs at high speeds – that sometimes takes the time to go into epic metal guitar solos, and sometimes to heavy palm muted riffs. in the middle of things are the vocals, sometimes intense shrieking, sometimes brooding low gutturals. at all times the execution is flawless, yielding a crisp and direct sound, helped by the rich mix. this is one of the very most accomplished and consistent demos I have ever heard, and you owe it to yourself – and everyone else – to give this a shot. it’s wonderful.
categories: math/tech, metal/metalcore
Lizards Have Personalities – In All Honesty
Monday, February 8th, 2010this band might be ten years too late, or it might have come at the perfect time to bring both nostalgia and a breath of fresh air at the same time to screamo. with a sound situated somewhere between Saetia and I Hate Myself and other screamo dinosaurs, it’s somewhat strange to have your first release in 2010. but it might just be the perfect time for this band to emerge. soft guitars twinkle and sparkle into raw and dissonant almost metal riffs. the vocals and lyrics are do not to escape their ’90s/early ’00s screamo influences. instead they hug them tight. and just like Saetia, Lizards Have Personalities operate on the very verge of bringing the lulz – yet somehow manage to just avoid it. if only barely. this in itself is quite the amazing feat though. dealing with these kind of lyrics and vocals you have to make sure to not go over the top, but how do you do that when it’s already so ludicrously over the top? I don’t know. but I’m glad that Lizards Have Personalities can scream «while staring at the ceiling, I was overwhelmed by the feeling – I am certain that I am alone» with a straight face, without me rofling. I am very much pleased that the deeply personal and semi-poetic lyrics maintain a notion of believability. because this is indeed awesome music. comparable to the beforehand mentioned dinosaurs and perhaps slightly to I Would Set Myself on Fire for You. it’s dynamic and ambitious screamo. get it!
categories: emo, metal/metalcore, screamo
Street Sweeper – Stylin on You
Thursday, January 7th, 2010this blog seems to always be in need of decent hardcore. so it’s a nice thing then, that Street Sweeper makes AWESOME hardcore. Cro-Mags-like metallic hardcore even. ’80s thrash riffs and ’90s hardcore breakdowns with aggressive vocals and lyrics, and heavy, heavy drumming. so what it is is essentially pissed off metalcore (or “crossover metal” as the media eventually ended up coining it) with slightly more focus on the hardcore than on the metal, which is okay by me. the vocals are somewhat in the central of the mix, but the awesome thrash riffs really give them competition in terms of where the listener’s main focus end up. either way, everything is perfectly synchronised. this band is fucking tight. all over. and the breakdown on “Rubber Neck” is even heavier than Smash Your Enemies (b9 joke…). anyway, download this.
categories: hardcore, metal/metalcore
When I Came Back From Death – Dead Language
Thursday, December 10th, 2009so this band told me they sounded like Converge and that they played punk. and uh… well they might sound like Converge, I probably haven’t listened enough to Converge to really justify any comparing, but right off the bat, I hear nothing. and sure, there are some sort of punk in here. but to me, the upside down crosses and what I think is an overly obscure logo at their MySpace make more sense. there are some sick hardcore breakdowns and such, but what I hear when I put on When I Came Back From Death is essentially a blackened metalcore band. a *very* blackened metalcore band. with vocals that somewhat remind me of Bal-Sagoth, double pedal drums and black metal though punky sounding guitars, sort of like Carpathian Forest. all of this and tons of energy and aggressiveness. a highly interesting effort. do download!
categories: metal/metalcore
TRONES – Gazing into shit and ruins
Monday, December 7th, 2009TRONES is a solo project by an ex-member of indietrash. this band doesn’t have all that much in common with indietrash, save for a taste for expressing itself in short noisy bursts. playing an eclectic mix of necro thrash, grindcore and noise. TRONES will leave an everlasting mark (of the beast) on you. consisting largely of blast beats, distorted guitars that vary between Burzum-like drone chord progressions and speedy thrash riffs, topping it off with some fairly nebulous vocals and samples, this is a band that will fucking gut you. download and listen.
categories: ambient/noise, metal/metalcore
The Crinn – Kills Curiosity
Saturday, November 7th, 2009a lot of you might have heard of a band called The Crinn. a heavy-hitting mathcore band on Nuclear Blast. however, that currently active band can’t be all too compared to the band I’m introducing to you here. this The Crinn are an obscure alien specie that is here to kill all your curiosity regarding them. their weapon? complete and utter musical insanity like none other. though taking most influence from screamo, grindcore, mathcore and artsy punk/metal/alternative bands (The Blood Brothers), The Crinn pretty much just do their own thing (which they named sci-fi core back in the day). this is The Crinn’s first release. pretty obscure, but still sold through their MySpace. they have a different drummer (who by the way is featured on sickestdrummer.com) and a different vocalist, who you should be familiar with through other posts on this blog (e.g. Red From Winter). anyway their sound is kind of uhm… hard to break down into a paragraph or so. it’s jazzy, technical and roaming. constantly shifting tempo and just… everything. this band does not blend genres, it jumps between them at random. for people who haven’t been exposed to experimental music, this will probably come off as really messy and completely crazy. however I am sure that even the most alien to experimental and avant-garde music has the potential to appreciate this true master piece. it might take some time though… Kills Curiosity stands for me as the epitome of experimental screamo. it’s almost closer to free jazz. combine this with the super artsy lyrics («THE CHILD WITH NO TOES KNOWS WHERE THE WAY THROUGH DANGER GOES», and let’s not forget the legendary «BECAUSE LOVE AIN’T NO RELIGION, OUR LOVE WAS SCIENCE FICTION») and the awesome cover this comes in, and you’ve got a pretty good reason to buy this. a simply stunning piece of music. get it. it may change your perception of what is and what isn’t music. (or destroy it.)
categories: emo, math/tech, metal/metalcore, screamo, who knows
Nightmares – Demo 2009
Monday, November 2nd, 2009now I’m a man who appreciates some good feedback. this alone makes Nightmares eligible for this blog. but in addition to using feedback, the music is pretty good as well! what do you know. the opening track “Sick” is definitely sick, with blast beats, heavily distorted guitar riffs, hardcore shouted vocals and at times grindcore growled vocals dealing with pretentiousness and elitism. me like. a lot of the lyrics on this demo seem to deal with the punk scene and what we want from it and how we need to give as much as we take – as well as scenester kids and how they need to pull off their mask and just be themselves. the melodic content on this album is mostly in between hardcore, metalcore and grindcore. it’s heavy and mostly fast. what *really* makes this sound so fucking awesome though is that it’s recorded live, giving it tons of extra edge. I know that there probably isn’t much chance of this happening, but I would be an extremely happy camper if these guys decided to record any future full lengths in the same manner. the feedback, the chugging, the shouting… everything sounds raw, emotional and on edge. the sheer power of this recording can’t be neglected. listen to this people!
categories: crust/grindcore/violence, hardcore, metal/metalcore
Stella Dawes – Contrasts
Sunday, October 18th, 2009these guys sent me their album ages ago. but due to moving the blog and so on, it never got posted… till now that is! and I must admit I was quite curious to hear what this album was like, due to seeing them name dropped on quite some forums, as well as getting *very* glowing revies. well boys… here’s another one to add to the collection. the intro is a brooding and atmospheric droning glimpse of doom. suddenly it gets abruptly ended in favour of havoc and destruction, and the meaning of the album title gets all too obvious. after raping your ears for some few minutes, Stella Dawes proceed into more ambient drone territory, just to make sure you are in fact going insane, before launching another full scale attack. you know The Battle for Helms Deep in the movie adaption of The Lord of the Rings? it’s kind of like that. only in between these grandiose events, there’s bits of harmonic and genuinely catchy soft alternative bits, offering a healing moment to your ears. Stella Dawes does an excellent job at executing this, which is something that might have been out of place if not done properly. fortunately though, this band proves to be capable of taking many elements which might not look compatible on paper, and putting them together into gigantic master pieces. the progressive and diverse nature of this band makes it somewhat appropriate to draw comparison to another band on that’s punk – The Pax Cecilia. both bands play a screamo-tinged variant of progressive metalcore. the biggest difference might be that where The Pax Cecilia has piano-driven harmonies, Stella Dawes have droning intervals of noise rock that strive to create harmonies and melodic structures underneath all the terror – and succeeds at that, I might add. just like they succeed at pretty much everything they attempt at this album. whether it be brutal metalcore or the sweetest acoustic-driven interludes climaxing in a mix of screams and loud and heavily distorted yet soft on the ears guitars, they simply succeed. this is a bombastic début album full of brave compositions and intricate arrangements that require the utmost skill and devotion to pull of. they pull it off. download this album, then order it from their MySpace. do it now.
categories: metal/metalcore, progressive/epic
Chronographs – There’s Nothing More Natural Than Disaster
Friday, September 18th, 2009Chronographs are a groovy punk band that’s somehow reminiscent to Method of Groove. with hints of hardcore, dashes of screamo and larger portions of southern rock, There’s Nothing More Natural Than Disaster is a pleasant listen throughout. though only four songs, it still manages to leave an impression. the southern rock/emo/hardcore fusion works out really well and doesn’t seem like a forced gimmick. it sounds completely sane and pretty awesome. the album overall is great, and the opening track in particular. brilliant effort that deserves a download; *your* download.
categories: metal/metalcore, punk rock