Pristina
The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow)
01. Moonshiner
02. Because I Can Kill You
03. Salt Water Cthulhu
04. Temple of the Morning Star
05. The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow)
[Trendkill | 9/28/10]
Despite what the title and cover of Pristina’s The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow) leads you to believe, Pristina are not a black metal band (shock and awe abound). Rather, the Connecticut based band are actually firmly rooted in grindcore, adding touches of sludge and doom for a very grim (and thoroughly pissed off) mentality. Pristina has been around for a few years, only recently getting around to releasing their full length debut record, The Drought, produced by Today is the Day’s Steve Austin.
Unlike most grindcore or powerviolence bands (I’m told there’s a distinction between the two, although I don’t really see it), Pristina passed over the short album/epic length tracklist trope in favor for a 5 track run at 45 minutes in length, with the album’s title track clocking in at almost 23 minutes, which is practically unheard of in the genre. This lends a slightly progressive feeling to the album, which is welcomed.
Musically, just about everything on The Drought is just right. The guitar work carries a dynamic that ranges from atmospheric and ominous with a sense of impending doom to pissed off and at full force with riffs big enough to be taken out of Scott Hull’s personal tab book. The bass provides a solid chunky foundation and sits well in the mix alongside guitar. The drumming is spot on and absolutely pummeling, with fills thrown about left and right with disregard for the safety of children and small animals.
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The Contortionist
Exoplanet
01. Primal Directive
02. Flourish
03. Expire
04. Contact
05. Advent
06. Vessel
07. Oscillator
08. Axiom
09. Exoplanet I: Egress
10. Exoplanet II: Void
11. Exoplanet III: Light
[Good Fight | 8/31/10]
Sumeriancore is a genre I generally don’t listen to. I feel like it’s a jack of all trades and a master of none, but Indiana’s The Contortionist prove that you can’t always count something out. If you were hesitant about listening to Sumeriancore bands, now is the time to change that. Simply put, Exoplanet delivers on all levels.
“Primal Directive” is an epitomizing opener, showcasing everything that The Contortionist rely on to make a fantastic album: resonating, heavy-as-fuck riffs intertwined with bright melodies. Throughout the song you’ll be met with these qualities, amplified only by the multi-ranged vocals. From high shrieks to low, booming growls, the vocals are anything but terrible. For even more diversity and to pair with the melodies, there is an extensive use of a vocoder. This fits the theme of the album well, adding an extra level of spacey, planetary-ness (I’m reminded of The Faceless‘ Planetary Duality album). My only gripe is I feel like the frequent layering of growls over singing abolishes the harmony of it. The contrast seems a bit unnecessary at times with the already-established melodies and tends to make said passage a little awkward and unfitting (middle of “Primal Directive”). While not the most unique harsh vocals, the diverse styles throughout Exoplanet should be enough to perk up your ears. In retrospect, the music here is god tier. What Exoplanet truly excels at is never making your listening experience boring. None of the breakdowns feel obligatory and none of the melodic breaks feel forced. Additionally, some of the unorthodox, unexpected transitions work well. The intro to “Expire” starts with some fading-in vocoder before busting out heavy blast beats while “Contact” feels like it’ll be the ballad of the album, but constantly changes from bright to dark. If you want booming tritone breakdowns, death metal passages and lots of melodies in between then Exoplanet is for you.
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The Sword
Warp Riders
01. Acheron/Unearthing the Orb
02. Tres Brujas
03. Arrows in the Dark
04. The Chronomancer I: Hubris
05. Lawless Lands
06. Astraea’s Dream
07. The Warp Riders
08. Night City
09. The Chronomancer II: Nemesis
10. (The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire
[Kemado | 08/24/10]
When I heard The Sword was going to release a concept album based around a science fiction narrative (as the band explained it) and experimenting with their sound a bit more, I was hesitant at the direction they might be going in. As more updates about the album came forth and the rad album art was unveiled, I started seeing their idea come to life and understood the direction they were going in. This wasn’t an album strictly for the fans, it was for them as a band to expand their sound and their enjoyment for making music. So with much anticipation I listened to Warp Riders (a multitude of times) and all the worries I had for the album melted away as I was swept into a world of witches, androids and a crew of space pirates with a vessel known as, The Sword…
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For Today
Breaker
01. The Breaker’s Origin
02. Devastator
03. The Advocate
04. The Breaker’s Valley
05. Seraphim
06. Arm The Masses
07. White Flag
08. The Breaker’s Encounter
09. Phoenix
10. Psalm Of The Son
11. King
12. The Breaker’s Commission
[Facedown | 08/31/10]
This is probably the first reader-requested review I’ve ever done in which the reader had nothing to do with the creation or promotion of the album, and Lord knows it probably won’t be the last. The album in question is Iowan christian metalcore outfit For Today‘s latest effort Breaker.
Those familiar with For Today know that they are very adamant about their faith. Where most bands make it a bit more subtle (eg. August Burns Red and As I Lay Dying), For Today go full frontal with lyrics like “We will see you on your knees before the King of Kings.” This shouldn’t pose as a problem by any means unless you have some religious hang-ups. Fans of the style will find the lyrical themes to be quite empowering, and they are indeed. There is a very anthemic and epic feeling, and when this album’s done you’ll feel like you can take on the world. Mission accomplished, guys. Too bad I can’t find a bio anywhere that lists all of your names. Seriously, I checked a couple of places.
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East of the Wall
Ressentiment
01. The Ladder
02. Salieri
03. Fool’s Errand
04. Wisp Of Tow
05. Ocean Of Water
06. It’s Always Worthwhile Speaking To A Clever Man
07. Fleshmaker
08. Maybe I’m Malaised
09. A Long Defeat
10. Gordian Corridor
11. Handshake In Your Mouth
12. Don’t Stop Bereaving
13. Beasteater
[Translation Loss | 07/20/2010]
Dammit, this album took me a while to write a review for, and I had it before it came out. It always took me a while to get into East of the Wall, as their brand of proggy post-hardcore-meets-post-metal sound was a bit of work to dissect; but throw vocals into an hour long album full of this music, then you have somewhat of a difficult listen. I knew from the get go that East of the Wall’s Ressentiment was good, but how good is it? That took some work.
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Elitist
Caves [EP]
01. Transcend
02. Principles
03. Array
04. Caves
05. Odeon
[Independent | 7/20/10]
I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Los Angeles’ Elitist last week while I was searching through myspace for bands that don’t suck. After a seemingly endless pile of crappy hardcore and deathcore bands, I was completely overjoyed when I finally found these guys. They play technical-melodic metal and they sound like what I imagine you might get if Veil Of Maya and Misery Signals had a baby. That’s a very good thing. They’re an unsigned band as of this writing, although with their talent and skill I don’t think it’ll be that way for too much longer.
Caves is the bands first release, and they’re off to a very strong start to their musical career. Consisting of 5 tracks, the EP is full of fast and tight melodic sections often layered with complex rhythms. It’s obvious that Elitist have found the sound that they want and they stick to it throughout Caves with consistency, and this isn’t a bad thing at all. They manage to make their music sound both pretty and heavy at the same time; something I wish more bands could do as well as these guys. One random thing I love about this EP: sometimes when listening I feel like the music resembles something off of a soundtrack to a Metroid game, which is awesome. I read an interview where one of the band members says “We wanted the listener to imagine the experience walking through an epic cave like in the Planet Earth series”. Lots of the gameplay in Metroid games involves walking through epic caves so hey, maybe I’m onto something. Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking. Either way, on with the review.
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Wretched
Beyond the Gate
01. Birthing Sloth
02. The Deed of Elturiel
03. In the Marrow
04. A Still Mantra
05. Cimmerian Shamballa
06. On the Horizon
07. Part I – Aberration
08. Part II – Beyond The Gate
09. My Carrion
10. The Guardians of Uraitahn
11. The Talisman
12. Eternal Translucence
[Victory | 08/03/10]
Wretched is a tough band to describe. Personally, I consider them to be technical-death metal. Some will read this and immediately think of Beneath the Massacre or Brain Drill, but Wretched sounds nothing like either. They use technical and progressive riffs throughout, but they take a back seat to the blast beats and shreds that sound most similar to The Black Dahlia Murder. The proggy and techy riffs are deliberately written as part of the song structure, and for this reason never interrupt the listening experience like one might think. This description specifically describes their latest album, Beyond the Gate.
Wretched’s first album, The Exodus of Autonomy, was a little more chuggier and at times sounded like Through The Eyes of The Dead’s Bloodlust. Beyond the Gate trades out much of the chugging (though not all of it) for plenty of screaming guitar solos. The shift in album art between the two albums coincides with this change, displaying an ominous face melting blast furnace.
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ENDITOL
ENDITOL
01. Monoculture
02. Ayin
03. Blame
04. Huath
05. Exterminans
06. Heavenvein
07. Scaven
08. Hope Universal
[Independent | 2010]
Take one part Dream Theater, one part Disturbed, and one part Strapping Young Lad and throw them in a blender. The end result is an interesting mixture called ENDITOL, a two-man project featuring Divinity‘s Sacha Laskow and AutoBody vocalist Jerrod Maxwell-Lyster.
As the album art would suggest, ENDITOL is a progressive and industrial tinged metal band with dark melodic atmosphere going on through the music. Just as Meshuggah and Strapping Young Lad, ENDITOL’s music can be chuggy without the annoyance and technical without all the directionless wank. The composition is on point, complete with tasty riffs and solos that are bound to get you hooked. Synths are also thrown in from time to time to exclamate the prog and minute industrial influences. All of this works together wonderfully in context and makes for a heavy and catchy experience.
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Cerebral Effusion
Impulsive Psychopathic Acts
01. Humiliation Through Methodical Submission
02. Homophobic Indiscriminate Violation
03. Into Morbid Obesity
04. Epidemic Of The Era
05. Psychotic Compositor
06. Last Torture Preferment
07. Absolute Excrement
[Comatose Music | 03/06/10]
Sweet Jesus god damn my face has been ripped off, raped, strangled, set on fire, stabbed, buried alive, dug out, and raped again. Cerebral Effusion put out their 3rd album Impulsive Psychopathic Acts back in March, and at the time I wasn’t sure what to think of it. But now that I’ve gathered my thoughts and I’m off of that long break, I almost know where to begin.
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Thorngoth
