Upcoming Metal: Week of August 24th
Necrokinesis
Death is The Hammer
Releases August 29th independently
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal
From the opening of “Death is Just The Beginning”, you get a gritty, nasty sounding guitar tone and drum combo. Almost a hybrid of Fear Factory-esque chugging, combined with Exodus/Testament style double bass. Instant pit-inducing combo that instantly had me banging my head along with every snare hit. “Cernunnos” dabbles into melodic death metal sound, especially with an epic guitar solo after the halfway mark. Songs like “Annihilation” and “The Power” deliver a freight train of heavy, fist-pumping riffs that will make any death or thrash fan happy. This one man project is definitely just getting faster, heavier and stronger with each release. And with this third album, Necrokinesis is an act to keep an eye out near the end of the year as one of those underdog/underrated album of the year releases.
SCORE: 5 / 5
Sowulo
Niht
Releases August 29th on Season of Mist
Genre: Nordic/Dark Folk
Capturing a sound of roots of multiple cultures and diving into the mind and one’s mental state, Sowulo bring that soundscape of one’s psyche and stillness akin to bands like Heilung and Wardruna with its pulsing and pounding drive of heavy percussion and folk-influenced instrumentation. From the war-drum strikes of “Seolfren Sicol” and the harmonized gritty male vocals and clean female vocals, it brings imagery of longing, loss and remembrance. “Āsteorfan” brings that thundering presence in its opening moments. Percussion drives the pacing and momentum of the album in an almost cinematic level. I adored “Full Mōna” for it’s luscious soundscape and audio imagery that the music captures. If you need a record to bring you into a mental trance and do a deep dive into one’s inner-self, or need some new music while you play Dungeons & Dragons or Skyrim, this record will truly match that feeling. A truly unique, complex, creative, and dynamic audio journey.
SCORE: 4.5 / 5
Ursawrath
Emergence
Releases August 29th independently
Genre: Progressive Sludge Metal
Right from the get-go of album-opener “Thawed By Hell’s Flames”, this Seattle act surprisingly goes for the throat with a high-intensity, thrash-heavy riff almost straight of The Accüsed’s playbook. “Rot” has a Mastodon-style riff/drum combo, but leans way more in the thrash direction and I love that shift up. Adam Schaefer’s vocals have a snarly, pissed-off tone to the delivery and adds that’s stank-face inducing disgust to the riff. The guitar solo on “Thrive in Destruction and Death” after the minute-mark sounds straight off a classic 80’s thrash record from Megadeth and is just technically impressive as the riff dive-bombs into a ridiculously fast and intricate pace. One heck of a strong debut that embodies the driving and heavy riffage of the 80’s with a more progressive/groove tone and I can’t wait to hear what they do for a follow-up.
SCORE: 4 / 5
Proscription
Desolate Divine
Releases August 29th on Dark Descent Records
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
This Finnish act truly delivers evil incarnate right from the start of the band’s second album. Album opener “Gleam of The Morning Star” captures that bleak, blast-beat heavy opening drum section, into an unrelenting riff barrage. Christbutcher’s vocals have that Glen Benton layering effect that just adds that demonic, unholy presence to it with his growl. “Bleed The Whore Again” has that unrelenting speed and heaviness, mixed with a bombardment of double bass and tremolo picking that just hits like a ton of bricks when done right. I loved tracks “The Midnight God” for it’s slow, dark and foreboding intro to “Heave Ho Ye Igneous Leviathan” and it’s just non-stop, beat you over the head drumming and Christbutcher’s vocals. I do think the production is a bit off, with some of the guitars and drums being a bit louder than the vocals. Taking away from the some of the power and presence of Christbutcher’s vocals, but that’s just my opinion. Solid second album that would appease any Blackened Death Metal fan.
SCORE: 4.5 / 5
Ash Magick
Rituals of Anathematic East
Releases August 29th on Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings
Genre: Black Metal
Following the eerie and haunting intro, “The Kneeling Wretch” kicks off Ash Magick’s third album Rituals of Anathematic East. With a production style akin to second wave black metal, it delivers that nostalgia of the origins of the genre. Guitar cascade over the screeching, cavernous vocals on the track with the drums barely being heard. Acting like a the pale, barely beating pulse of a corpse. “Beyond Dara’s Gates” and “Baptistery” add an unholy scream to the vocal performance amongst the walls of distortion. With many of the song’s sounding similar, or the feeling of being “one piece broken into parts”, I did feel the album did drag a bit. With the production and audio quality adding to the feeling of dragging or similarity. Though still a grim and bleak sounding record, I think the production hurts the quality and score of the record. If the album had the same production quality as their previous record Âlâm, Rituals of Anathematic East might have scored higher. But for me, this was a step-backwards instead of forward.
SCORE: 3.5 / 5
Shadows
Miseria
Releases August 29th independently
Genre: Black Metal
On their debut album Miseria, Germany’s Shadows dishes out a heavy amalgamation of melodic death metal with dark and evil black metal. This is showcased on the album’s opener “As Above So Below”. With moments of sounding like black metal acts Abbath or Satyricon, combined with death metal similar to Unleashed or Dethklok. “Lamia” captures that winter soundscape that I get from the darkest and coldest black metal acts, with some nice growls from Dejan Milenkovits. Tracks like “Nadir (No Consent)”, “Spring Sleepwalker” and album closer “Unnamed Sorrow” were true standout tracks for me. A really good debut that had me banging my head along with a lot of the music. Shadows delivers a nice package of black/death metal that I think the band will fine-tune even more on the follow-up, but I love what I’m hearing so far and eager to hear more.
SCORE: 4 / 5
