Macabra- Blood-Nurtured Nature(2012)

Macabra- Blood-Nurtured Nature

I only listened to Blood-Nurtured Nature once. And in one listen, I am convinced that Blood-Nurtured Nature is the worst album of 2012 so far.

An international collaboration between American "musician" Mark Riddick and French vocalist Adrien "Liquifier" Weber, Macabra is an attempted return to the classic late 80's, early 90's Death Metal sound: just beginning to tear itself from the rotted womb of Thrash Metal dessicated corpse. For many, this is Death Metal, the only Death Metal. All other Death Metal is false Death Metal, devoid of the genre's true evil. It is fake Death Metal for pampered teenagers and false posers.

I am not one of these "old school is the only school" people.

Blood-Nurtured Nature is a sloppy, poorly produced mass of cliched Death Metal tropes that tries to sound like every single Death Metal band from the late 80's all at once. Considering Mr. Riddick can barely even play any of the instruments featured on this album, it's a disaster from the first minute to the last. In many ways, it's rather impressive that Mr. Riddick can play guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. On the other hand, the fact that he is incapable of playing any of them well enough for a major Metal release is a slight problem. The drums and guitars are frequently out of synch, and the guitar playing itself is so consistently sloppy and uninteresting as to be obnoxious. The entire album is one massive, brutal miscalculation from the start, and it never has a chance to recover.

Seriously, it's all bad. The production is nothing short of atrocious: the guitars sound like they are made of cardboard, the bass has absolutely zero punch and the drums sound flat and lifeless. The production quality remains consistently, obnoxiously thin and flat throughout Blood-Nurtured Nature's painfully long thirty five minute running time, and never fails to destroy any real value the piss poor compositions might have stumbled upon by sheer providence. The opening of "Contribution To Your Dis-Elaboration (Sustenance Of The Void)" might have sounded very brutal in an Undergang type way, if it didn't sound like it was recorded in a bedroom on a twenty dollar microphone. It's just so... bad. Even the aesthetic is dated and inoffensive, clinging for dear life to typical horror movie cliches and imagery as though they were some new, controversial idea that hasn't been used by every other fucking artist on Earth since the 90's. Korn features darker and less embarrassing imagery than the typical, played out "I'm a crazy serial killer" idiocy spewed forth by Macabra. Typical predictable aesthetics to go with typical, inoffensive Old-School Mash that is ready made for consumption.

Perhaps the worst part about Blood Nurtured-Nature? It has no identity. It has no purpose. It has no energy. The whole album is so by the numbers, safe and without the thrill of songwriting, it becomes impossible for the album to justify it's own existence.

And album must have one of three things to be truly worthwhile: creativity, proficiency and energy. If an album has even one of those things, it was a musical journey worth undertaking. Albums like Blood-Nurtured Nature were never meant to be creative or proficient. I get that. They are supposed to be little time machines to take listeners back in time to the way a genre was played back when it was a new thing. But an album like Blood-Nurtured Nature must have energy... and yet it doesn't. It's worship without any zealotry, as though the duo of Macabra feel they have to worship Old School Death Metal, but don't really want to. The whole album sounds like a painful and boring time sink for the band itself.

Is there anything worse, for the band or those who listen them?

Rating: 2/10

Obolus- Lament(2012)

Obolus- Lament

Obolus are another in an increasing number of obscure, mysterious Raw Black Metal bands... or solo projects... or whatever. As is increasingly common, no one really knows(creepy inflection) who makes up Obolus. Frankly, it's a played out gimmick that Deathspell Omega have been toying with for over a decade now. Regardless, this San Fransisco based Black Metal project have released this new EP through Flenser Records, a label well know for signing only the most progressive and noise-y Black Metal bands, so one would expect Lament to push many, many boundaries and enrage many, many hardcore cloak-and-chalice Black Metal elitist.

But it really doesn't. Lament is in many ways a fairly standard slice of raw, atmospheric Black Metal heavily influenced by the Depressive Black Metal sound. Elements of Burzum, Emperor and Leviathan all show up through Lament's five tracks of cold, disenchanted bleakness. And while nothing on display here is particularly original, Lament is as solid and even exhilarating as one could hope it would be, featuring mature and legitimately atmospheric compositions that make excellent use of keyboards to maximize the grim chills.

The strongest aspect of Lament is easily it's massive, yet extremely raw, production. I have heard Obolus referred to by some as part of the "Blackgaze" movement(considering they are from California, that makes some sense). I don't hear these elements in the actual compositions, but Lament's production could certainly give off this illusion. Making use of a "wall-of-sound" style production popular with many modern Shoegaze acts, Lament sounds just massive, with the oddly comforting fuzz of the guitars and bass creates a bed of dissonance for the listener to snuggle up into. The vocals hide just beneath the static, shrieking out as though they were voices in your head, pleading with you to end their suffering. Lament just has a tremendous sound, which allows it to overcome its fairly standard songwriting.

Standard, but not poor at all. Lament can be absolutely thrilling at times, like the explosive and haunting "Hatred," which blisters with raw riffs, chilling keyboards and damaged, fearful screams. Repetition is used to excellent effect throughout Lament to create atmospheric tapestries and deep wells of darkness. "Grievance" in particular shows these powerful techniques in full effect, starting with a highly atmospheric lead over the sounds of falling rain and suffocating static, before a slathering of Emperor-meets-Darkthrone style raw Black Metal kicks in, the keyboards providing a mournful chorus to a drama of raw, blistering Norwegian Black Metal.

Not having any expectations for this album might have helped, but Lament has been one of my favorite albums of 2012 so far. It isn't original, but the mature and complex musical compositions combined with some of the best production I have heard in Black Metal all year allows Lament to overcome it's standard origins and be something greater than the sum of it's parts. Flesner Records has been giving this spectacular little EP away for free via Bandcamp(while also releasing the album in physical form), so toss away the misgivings and give this a serious spin.

Rating: 8.5/10

Sigh - In Somniphobia (2012)

  Sigh - In Somniphobia

Despite Sigh's humble beginnings as a less than adventurous black metal band, their reputation has been built on the avant-garde stylings they've cultivated since the late 90s. For me, Imaginary Sonicscape was the apex of their career; it's a marathon of weirdness that remains one of my favorite albums. Word that In Somniphobia would be a darker Imaginary Sonicscape unsurprisingly got me and many others eager for its arrival, and after months of waiting, here it is. Sigh have delivered on their promise for an experience reminiscent of Imaginary Sonicscape, but unfortunately it is sorely lacking in the brilliance of the latter album. The strength of Sigh's previous work was their ability to ground their experimentation in a rock solid foundation of metal; the hand claps, synths, weird electronic voices and organ solos all complimented the core of the music, those wonderful riffs, leads, choruses and solos that make much of Sigh's work so memorable. In Somniphobia feels first and foremost an experimental experience rather than a metal one, and it's very much to the music's detriment. I'm not a metal purest, or afraid of experimentation, but the weirdness' lack of a strong foundation leaves all the synth and sax oddness feeling hollow.

There is no absolute dearth of riffing, but the guitars lack the same substance as the best of what Sigh has previously offered. It's immediately evident from opener “Purgatorium”, where the riffs and leads seem like they're there more to complement the organs and strings rather than to bring any real substance to the song. Melodic leads in general make a big showing, but they feel weak and don't muster the same force as those in, say, “Corpsecry-Angelfall” from Imaginary Sonicscape. Mirai's vocals are at his weakest here as well; while his growls are generally derided, I find that they presented a lot of emotion and texture in the past, whereas here they feel more standard. The catchy choruses are missing as well, denying us the same glorious hooks of Sigh's previous work. All in all, it is quite frankly boring; the album fails to justify it's running time, which falls just short of 65 minutes. Many of the longer songs individually carry on with a similar mix of self-indulgence and fruitlessness (see: “Amongst The Phantoms”).

There are times when the experimentation works well. The brooding spaciness of “Somniphobia”, the urgent excitement of “L’excommunication a Minuit” and the album's highlight, the sinister and jazzy “Amnesia”, provide a brilliant series of tracks that present some of the album's best guitar work and experimentation, and a great mixing of the two. Sigh clearly still has the chops to produce great music, but unfortunately the album as a whole doesn't represent that very well.

 7.6/10

-Faulty

Revenge- Scum.Collapse.Eradication(2012)

Revenge- Scum.Collapse.Eradication

Revenge do not fuck around.

There are a countless number of truly brutal, truly unhinged bands out there, but few can match the napalm-and-vomit that this Canadian duo spew from every orifice. It's all this band know how to do: belch out disgusting abominations that stink of death. Scum.Collapse.Eradication is no different in this regard from any previous Revenge album... in any way.

I know, I know. Revenge are "trve" and "real." Shit like musical progression and exploration are for "posers" and the "untrve." And in many ways that's fine. Some bands find a sound, and stick with it. They make music they want to make for fans who don't want them to change. It's a perfectly harmonious atrocity that never comes off the rails or slows down. Devastation by the numbers; comforting genocide... dependable hatred for humanity. All of this I can understand and even appreciate.

That doesn't mean I can get all the way behind it. Scum.Collapse.Eradication is the definition of competent, and at times elevates itself above it's station. "Parasite Gallows(In Line)" is a crusty slice of Carcass-inspired Deathgrind, with completely unhinged guitar solos to boot, that mixes in a heavy dose of Archgoat-style mid paced riffing that does not fail to crush spines. "Filth Solution(Intolerance)" makes maximum use of the pitch-shifted gutturals(lifted right from Reek of Putrefaction) to create a swampy mess of distorted Grindcore riffs and Blasphemy-infused hatred. All the stuff you expect from Revenge is here. Which is nice...

But it begs the question, a question I have been finding myself asking a lot lately. Do all bands lend themselves to multiple releases? How many Nile albums do you have to buy before you've gotten enough of the same... exact... sound. Or Amon Amarth? Or Hate Eternal? For most people, including myself, the answer is one(except for Amon Amarth... closer to zero). Revenge are in the same boat. Fact is, if you own any of the previous Revenge albums, then you have already listened to Scum.Collapse.Eradicate. You already have experienced this punishing whirlwind of savagery and blast beats. Which is not to say the album is worthless, and I find this album has my favorite production of all the Revenge albums. It's fun and aggressive and heavy. It's a whole lot of things, most of them good.

But all of them have been done before. So yes, Revenge do not fuck around. Scum.Collapse. Eradicate is deadly serious in every way. It's all about the murder, the mayhem and the hatred... and nothing else.

Rating: 6.5/10

Upcoming Releases To Get Horny About: Second Stage

It feels like years since Nuclear War Now! announced the release of an upcoming full length from Chilean witch doctors Wrathprayer. In Utter Darkness turned a lot of heads, but I found the demo's production... essentially broken. But when I heard this new track from the upcoming The Sun of Moloch: The Sublimation of Sulphur's Essence Which Spawns Death and Life, I pretty much shit myself. I mean even the name of the album is killer as fuck. Easily the most anticipated Metal release on the upcoming release schedule.


Is anyone else disappointed with this new Black Breath track? It's pretty obvious Black Breath are going in a more... Thrash heavy direction. Considering I'm not the biggest fan of Thrash Metal, this isn't the direction I was hoping Black Breath would go. Even the cover art looks horrible...


I'm really digging the direction Impiety is going right now. It might be a little pretentious(their songs are getting really fucking long), but it's much more expansive and inventive than their previous material. This particular new track from the upcoming Ravage & Conquer album shows a much stronger Angelcorpse vibe to the whole project. Perhaps Impiety are seeking to give us the Morbid Angel album we all deserve? Increasingly stoked for them.


Time to go completely off the rails. As some of you might know, I have been all about obscure Japanese Post Rock/Post Punk/Math Rock. Not sure how this ended up being the case, but within hours I was completely obsessed with bands like 百蚊(100 Mosquitoes) and Mass of the Fermenting Dregs. One band I have discovered during this unholy and completely ridiculous musical obsession is ハイスイノナサ(haisuinonasa), who play some of the most beautiful and heart wrenching Math Rock/Post Rock I have heard in a long time, with elements of Shoe Gaze and Electronica thrown in for extra tastiness. The bands first two "Mini CDs," about a city and The Child of Imagination And City, are just spectacular, and are available for streaming and "name-your-price" purchase via Bandcamp

Demoncy- Enthroned is the Night(2012)

Demoncy- Enthroned is the Night

In all of American Black Metal, no project is more underrated than Demoncy, the brainchild of the mad priest Ixithra. While Profanatica, Xasthur, Leviathan and Nachtmystium seem to get most of the press, Demoncy has always been the forgotten beast. Part of it has been Demoncy's irregular release schedule, which saw the project produce almost nothing but demo's until 1999. But in 1999, Demoncy gave us Joined in Darkness, an unparralled masterpiece of Black Metal than has never gotten the run it deserves. Sounding as though it were recorded in the bathroom of R'lyeh, Joined in Darkness was the definition of crushing darkness. But when Demoncy followed this up with the utterly worthless Empire of a Fallen Angel, which saw the project head in a much faster, melodic and... ugh... Swedish direction, many feared that we would never again receive a dark blessing like Joined in Darkness.

Enthroned is the Night is the triumphant return of the Demoncy that we rabid fans of Joined in Darkness have been waiting for. Well, sort of... it at least doesn't reek of Swedish melody and triggered drums. Enthroned is the Night is certainly a stylistic revival: a return to the vile concoction of Norwegian Second Wave Black Metal and Canadian/American Bestial Black Metal, making the album feel just as comfortable next to Transylvanian Hunger as Fallen Angel of Doom. Tracks are relentless, aggressive and extremely ugly. "Winds of Plague" explodes with a crushing riffs and thundering double bass that bring to mind an unholy union of Archgoat and early Mayhem, while "Unclean Spirits" invokes the decrepit spirits of Profanatica and Sarcofago, complete with copious blast beats and static-riddled riffs. Every track has a strong emphasis of tempo, featuring plenty of change-up between Blasphemy-like speed and slower, atmospheric riffs, which keeps the listening experience active and relentless.

I also feel I need to write a love letter to Ixithra's incredible vocals. Sounding like Gollum with throat cancer, Ixithra and his vicious, demonic "whisper-growls" have been one of the few elements of Demoncy that we have seen imitated by other Black Metal artists, but never truly matched. Part of what made Empire of a Fallen Angel so utterly and incomprehensibly bad, outside of the whole Marduk-meets-Dissection thing, was that Ixithra ditched his trademark vocals in favor of a horribly generic gruff abortion that lacked any nastiness. But back doing what Demoncy was always meant to do, the vocals on Enthroned is the Night drip with acid and phlegm, as though Ixithra is choking upon his own filth ridden soul.

But for all the joy I feel that Demoncy has returned to the sound that made such a masterpiece, such a brilliant and eternal pitch black jewel, I cannot hide the tinge of sadness that creeps down my spine. For listening to Enthroned is the Night so often has given me a brutal, heart-breaking epiphany, one that flies in the face of everything I have believed about Demoncy so long: Demoncy are a one hit wonder. Enthroned is the Night is a brilliantly played return to form no doubt, but in reviving the sound that made Joined in Darkness what it is, the various weaknesses and failures of the style are brought down hard to bare. This album is so straight forward and so lacking in variety, were this any other band I might pull a Miasmal rating right out of my ass.

Enthroned is the Night could not be any more straightforward or uncreative. The album is even divided into perfect little sections: tracks one, six and eleven could be categorized as "intro," "intermission" and "outro" leaving eight tracks divided into sections of four. I know this seems like a stupid thing to notice, but it is just the first thing that screams "I'm barely trying!" Each tracks sounds almost exactly the same, following same-y patterns that never differentiate between each other.

Not rarely. NEVER.

Without the sudden stops between tracks, Enthroned is the Night could quite easily made into one long song. But honestly, that would have been way too creative. The sound that Demoncy developed on Joined in Darkness is so uncompromising, so unrelenting and truly bleak, it just does not lend itself to any kind of experimentation. It didn't matter with Joined in Darkness because it was just... so... evil. It was so vile, so soul siphoning, that the fact that every track sounded the same didn't even matter. It was a blasphemous tapestry that Satan himself would have wrapped himself in at night as he slept on his bed of burning souls. Meanwhile, Enthroned is the Night feels more like Satan's pillow case that he occasionally drools on... it just doesn't evoke the same sense of dread and abomination.

Yet even though Enthroned is the Night feels so much smaller and slighter than Joined in Darkness, part of me just loves the fuck out of it. Part of me screams for more, and I find myself feeding this hunger very regularly. Enthroned is the Night is my version of comfort music, something I can have playing all day long and never truly tire of(which says something really fucked up about me as an individual). This part of me screams even now as I write this: it pounds furiously on the back of my head, in protest of what my logical brain is now forcing me to do. For no matter how much I love Enthroned is the Night, it is impossible for me to look upon it and say with certainty that this is a great album. It just isn't. It's predictable, same-y, uncreative and pig-headed in it's utter relentlessness.

And I want more!

Rating:
The screaming fanboy: MORE!!!!!
Real score: 7/10

Male Misandria / Malveillance - Split(2012)

Male Misandria / Malveillance - Split

Though Suffering Jesus Productions has,sadly, recently closed its doors, one of its final acts was to getout this split between Italy's oddly named Male Misandria andQuébec's Malveillance. While the uninitiated listener might find itodd to see a split between a grindcore band and a black metalproject, the similarities are apparent immediately upon listening.Both Male Misandria and Malveillance provide unrelenting and viciousblasts of musical violence that go for the throat and don't stopuntil they've tasted blood.

Male Misandria start the split off with“Magister Makeup”, an intense track which balances brutality andspeed with skill and good song writing to great effect. It providesan immediate glimpse as to the showing MM make here. The guitar toneis clear and gives every riff a clarity which allows theirmemorability and heaviness to shine. This is a definite plus giventhat the music depends heavily on the guitar; the bass is inaudible,the drumming provides what it needs to but doesn't shine, and thevocals are impassioned but don't step far out of an often seen mix ofhigher screams and lower growls. There are moments when the screamsget particularly high pitched and out of control, and that's when thevocals shine the most; “Marble Marquinia” and “Mothlife” bothprovide great examples. Though the other aspects of the music aren'tparticularly exceptional the riffing is thankfully strong. As said,they are memorable and heavy, switching up enough to keep the songsinteresting and exciting while not changing up so much that the riffsdon't make an impact. Male Misandria are strong song writers ingeneral; “Marble Marquinia” and “Mannerless Maternus Mo” havedramatic openings, “Mothlife” ends with a high speed solo, andthe way a melodic lead threads its way through tremolo picked rhythmguitar in “Male Model Merge” is reminiscent of certain types ofblack metal. The crescendo of Male Misandria's half is “Martyr”,which nears 6 minutes and is the longest track on the split. It's adramatic and complex song that shows off MM's strength as songwriters. It's full of interesting moments: it opens with an“Egyptian” sounding riff (or at least Egyptian in the bounds ofthe West's musical imagination), before shifting into black metalinspired riffs. The song has many moments that nearly hit epicterritory, and it has a very interesting bridge where atmosphericguitars and distant, echoing vocals mix with shifts between blackmetal inspired riffing and thick chords. They wrap things up with aninexplicable dark ambient/industrial track, “Masto B”, whichdoesn't make a ton of sense, but is at least solid for what it is.

Malveillance's side opens with its ownweirdness. “Rien” is an ambient track over which F(Malveillance's one and only member) simply speaks in a way thatbrings to mind a pissed off, slightly drunk man. If I understoodFrench, I might be able to read more meaning in to it, so I'll giveit the benefit of the doubt. Everysong is named after an individual. A web search got me hits on a fewof the names, who appear to be important figures in Québec of someform or another, so it seems safe to say that Malveillance's half ispossibly dedicated to a variety of influential figures in Québec'shistory. As soon as “Rien” finishes, F immediately kicksinto what Malveillance is known for: filthy D-Beat inspired blackmetal with a raw, simplistic and hateful style that is no doubtinfluenced by the work of Norway's Ildjarn. The guitar and bass havea thick and dirty raw production that I find benefit's Malveillance'ssound even more than the production on his previous release,Consentir a L'absurde. Theonly problem with the production is the drums. The cymbals have avery tinny sound; I can't decide if it's a crappy drum machine, or ifthe recording of real drums wasn't done quite right. If you can lookby it, the core of Malveillance's sound is present and as strong asever. The songs shift between one or two black/punk riffs, with athick, low end sound. As is typical of this style, the songs arepresented in some ways as variations of a theme, providing an intenseand holistic listening experience, rather than one dominated byclearly demarcated songs. I think Malveillance is one of the top actsof this style, and any fan of it should find there thirst sated byhis performance here. It's length of only 14½ minutes gives it lessvariation than Consentir a L'absurde,but it more than provides the visceral experience I look for in thiskind of music.

The split ends witha few bonus tracks from each artist. Male Misandria presents a lessrefined version of the grindcore previously. The production is muchrawer, probably because the songs were recorded in 2007. “Spazio”isn't as interesting as the earlier tracks and “Love” is yourtypical under-10-seconds grind track. “Vivere da padroni” and “ViOdio” are more interesting thrashy numbers with some audible bassactually popping up. Some synth weirdness pops up here at times mostprominently in “Vi Odio”, where it shows up in the break down andsticks around for the rest of the track. The synths are prettyawkward, and I'm glad they dropped them. Those last two song are alsoa bit over long. The bonus tracks aren't totally unwelcome, but theyreally bring to light how much MM have evolved as song writers in 4or 5 years.

Malveillance onlyhas two bonus tracks. “Cloportes Soumis” fits in with the styleof the earlier songs, and it seems like it might have fit betterthere. A cover of Crude SS's “Nazi Go Home” follows, and it'sbeen infused with the Malveillance sound so much that it's not reallyidentifiable as anything but. Still, it's a nice track that closesoff the album well.

Overall the splitis an excellent showing by both bands and I highly recommend it tofans of either, to fans of grindcore or extreme punk/black metalmixtures, or in general to anyone who likes extreme music that boilsdown to a musical punch to the face. Though Suffering Jesus' labelside is unfortunately dead, they're distro is still open, and thissplit is more than worth its cost.

8.9/10

-Faulty

Metal Archives (Malveillance) / Myspace (Malveillance) / Metal Archives (Male Misandria) / Myspace (Male Misandria) / Buy (Suffering Jesus Productions)

Aborted - Global Flatline(2012)

About fucking time. Aborted has dabbled in melodic experiments for far too long (not that they were bad, Strychine.213 was pretty good) and has finally went back to its splanchnic roots of goregrind. Goregrind is an oversaturated genre nowadays, with all these back-alley bands that think that a bunch of 900 BPM blast beats, mindless detuned grooves, and horrible guest vocals by frogs, dogs, and bulls make a goregrind band good. It's like an abortion with a kick in the stomach compared to a suction-aspiration one. Well, the master-butcher has returned, and he definitely showed these superfluous dilettantes how to wear the apron and use the power-tools without disemboweling themselves like fucking idiots.


This album is a welcome relief; feels like the goregrind of the old pantheon, tinged with obvious modern (in a good way) influences. This album is great because it completely revitalized the genre, and can easily bring together the veteran metalheads with the younger generation, without causing them to kill each other in order to prove which one's the scenester. It takes the medical-malignancy theme, low-pitched vocals, and firm velocities, chops them up, cooks (or keeps them raw, if you will), and serves it in a dish of blood-drenched human bones and skin.


The album also features solid guest vocals from Keijo Niinimaa (Rotten Sound), Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder), Jason Netherton (Misery Index), and Julien Truchan (Benighted), all bands I love. Even though TBDM's Strnad doesn't really fit in the "grindcore" setting, he still executes his role like a freshly manufactured scalpel, yet to cut the skin. The album starts with some apocalyptic news, a dying heart monitor, and basically impending doom. And that shit delivers. The album feels like being chased by a horde of ravenous flesh-eating zombies, or getting a premature autopsy, whatever floats your boat. Superb songwriting combined with neckbreaking speed with actual song structure is an obvious choice of a soundtrack to a zombie apocalypse.


Aborted definitely delivers in skin-cracking lashing, without killing your ass, but making sure you're going to suffer until the end. Lo and behold, high and low pitches, fast and slow playing, guitar and bass solos. Creepy 80s B-Movie horror-like guitar harmonies and just a general atmosphere of blood, gore, viscera, and everything pathologically erroneous make this album awesome. Relish this goregrind masterpiece; there's enough entrails and guts for everyone to sink their hungry blades and teeth (or... other stuff, if that's your thing) into.


Rating: 9/10

Ives - Abandon (2010)

Ives - Abandon

Black metal has always had at least some peripheral relation to punk. Early bands like Ildjarn and Carpathian Forest used it, and when you think about it, the raw black metal style is very DIY. Still, from the past decade to the present, a much stronger surge of bands playing a black metal/punk mixture has arisen. Many of these bands have brought together the raw energy found in both punk and black metal, to vicious and often interesting ends. Florida's Ives are another recent band to try their hand at the black/punk mix, and Abandon is their second demo. It's a svelte 20 minutes with some interesting moments, though unfortunately more trite ones.

Opener “The Taste of Severity” starts with a God awful sound clip about cannibalism before breaking into some decent enough but very unsurprising black/punk. The music alternates between blackened punk chords backed by D-beat drumming and riffs that sound like Mayhem circa 1994. The vocalist growling “smear the blood on my face / taste the blood in my mouth” fails to have the emotional resonance they were going for.

From there, each track becomes longer than the last. Second track “Burning The Incense, Amanita Virosa” opens slowly and unfolds into a mix of black metal, crust punk and sludge. It's an interesting mix, like a black metal Dystopia, but the track quickly becomes more blackened Discharge worship, before switching to Mayhem/Darkthrone inspired black metal, and so on. 7 minutes in and one of the key problems with the demo becomes apparent: the music tends towards predictable shifts back and forth between riffs copped from classic Norwegian bands and Discharge inspired punk leading to unexciting ends.

The best parts of the demo occur in the last half. Part way through “Lost In The Pleasures Of Moonlight”, the music shifts into dark and droning chords which accompany a xylophone (!!!) before exploding into some absolutely fierce black/thrash riffing that blew me away, especially coming right after the down tempo bridge. Titular track “Abandon” provides interesting moments as well. Its dramatic opening displays vocal variance with some yelling taking the place of the standard black metal rasps that dominate the rest of demo. The song sadly turns into another back and forth between punk and riffs that sound like they wouldn't be out of place in Darkthrone's Under a Funeral Moon. Surprisingly though, Ives then does another bizarre 180 into unique territory when fiddle begins playing over melancholy black metal riffing before fading out (albeit somewhat sloppily) into an instrumental passage of folk consisting of acoustic guitars and haunting fiddle. The black metal comes back in, accompanied by excellent cymbal use. The fiddle stays present for the remainder of the track providing an incredibly enjoyable final minute before the demo ends.

Therein, though, lies another one of the problems. The unique moments are caught in a mire of ho-hum punk and black metal riffing jacked from early Norwegian BM records. The crust/sludge/black opening of “Burning The Incense”, the ambient bridge, creative use of xylophone and thrashy finish to “Lost In The Pleasures Of Moonlight” and the violin use, folk break and melancholy riffing in “Abandon” are excellent, but are caught between trite filler. Ives definitely shows promise on Abandon. They have the potential to pull together an interesting full length, either by making an eclectic album (similar to what Akitsa and Ash Pool have done) that tastefully displays their various ideas, or by bringing it all together into a more cohesive style. Either way, they'll need to root out the generic aspects of their song writing. I'd definitely be interested in a debut album from them, and Abandon has some wonderful moments, but as a whole it fails to thrill.

6.8/10

-Faulty

Metal Archives / Myspace

Morgirion- Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise(2012)

Morgirion- Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise

Wielding one of the best covers of the year so far, Morgirion's Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise sounds as black and wicked as that Skeleton Mage looks. Mixing elements of Second Wave Black Metal, Bestial Black Metal and Death Metal into a viscous goo, black as charred remains and colder than ice, Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise signals the coming of wicked things. Hailing from Connecticut, this trio of blood mages form slithering incantations of malice and sin with plenty of verve and excellent musical chops, if also a penchant for excessive compositions that wield far too many sacrificial daggers for far too long.

My first thought when listening to Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise was "this sounds a lot like Gyibaaw," and it remains an apt comparison. Both bands love serpentine song structures and drawn out, The Chasm-like riffing sections with plenty of old school Black Metal thrown in. But while Gyibaaw are prone to sudden bursts of wild experimentation and unhinged vocal abominations, Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise is a more straight forward and traditional affair, albeit a varied one. "The Final Incantation" starts off with an Emperor-like funeral procession before bursting into blast heavy Death Metal and then bringing on more Emperor, complete with keyboards and minimalistic guitars, dripping with grimm atmosphere. "Pyroclastic Warfare" drops a heavy dose of Blasphemy, then without warning shifts to a keyboard hymn, with an explosive wave of Raw Black Metal churning beneath the surface.

The Chasm are an obvious influence here, and it shows on tracks like the finale, "Inception Revoked," a thirteen minute epic that;s over-flowing with Blackened Occult Death Metal riffs and demoniacal invocations. Keyboards also make their way into this track, but they feel forced and underwhelming, as though the band were trying to force even more atmosphere where it doesn't belong. This is a common occurrence with Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise: forced and unnecessary keyboards. When it works, like on the aforementioned "Pyroclastic Warfare," it's great, but more often then not the keyboard compositions sound same-y, uninspired and perhaps most disappointingly shoe-horned into the track. "Suffer Before Me, Forsakened Hordes" reeks of cheese, mostly due to the lame keyboards filtering beneath a fairly standard Black Metal track that features far too much Swedish-style melody: a rare-low light on an otherwise impeccable album.

If not perfectly written all the time, Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise is stellar most of the time. It does the proper job evoking thick, demonic atmosphere's and unholy sonic landscapes with all the zealotry and energy you could ask for. It may not be the fire that will burn down the decaying, rusted gates of Heaven, or the spear that again pierces the side of Christ, but without question Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise is a weapon finely crafted for late night angel slaying and gloomy sojourns into the unknown and horrifying.

Rating: 8/10