Evergrey – Architects Of A New Weave (Napalm Records) [Simon Black]Evergrey are another act absolutely in my sweet spot but to whom I only came upon fairly late in the day a couple of albums back.
Architects Of A New Weave is, believe it or not, their fifteenth studio recording. The line-up may have ebbed and flowed a lot in that time (and indeed quite a lot recently), but the consistency and quality have not, and I remain surprised that this unique and prolific act have not achieved more success than they have, because it’s surely deserved.
This new opus does not buck the trend.
A conceptual piece thematically (something Evergrey are no strangers to) the album starts a little clunkily with a narrative opening, which frankly serves little purpose other than to give the band 90 seconds to get on stage when playing live. At first I’m a little disorientated by the slightly jumbled opening bars of the opener proper –
The Shadow Self, although once it gets going it delivers exactly the kind of catchy, mood and haunting vocal chorus hook that makes this band so distinctive.
The title track then proceeds to knock things out of the park, along with any of my concerns. Whilst clearly the strongest track of the crop, it’s also probably one of their best songs to date, and one I suspect is going to be in the set live for some time.
The record continues mostly in the darkly melodic, progressive-tinged vein that they are such masters at, but the pitch and tone do head into faster and more upbeat terrify from time to time, varying the pace at just the moment when things could get repetitive. There’s a slightly different and edgy vibe to this disk as well, and perhaps the line up fluctuations have been therapeutic as well, because at this stage in their careers it would be easy to just stick to what you know, but overall this feel like a positive step in a slightly different direction without losing the key sound which makes them so recognisably unique.
9/10Ditheist – Cosmic Liar (Heathen Tribes) [Mark Young]Ditheist, hailing from Chicago come in and drop what is essentially a decent bit of Death/Grind for their second full length release, Cosmic Liar. What you get is 8 songs that stick to a plan with little deviation in how each of the tracks deploy. There are moments where they spread their approach wider, such as the middle eastern tinge to
Nyarlathotep but I’m getting ahead of myself by not starting at the beginning.
It’s an odd one as the opening trio of Cosmic Liar, Evil To Live and Kill The Priest are relatively ok and represent a fairly strong start. Each of these take the core requirements for extreme music and apply generously like they are spending someone else’s money. For me, they don’t do enough to grab and to be honest I thought that this would be the general theme running through it.
When we get to Nyarlathotep suddenly you sit up and take notice. This is a grand moment, carrying an epic feel to it where everything clicks into place. Riffs are huge with a cracking pace to them that drops in and out to suit. Throw in a lead break that does a lot in quick time and we are off with renewed interest.
Apoplectic Delirium follows and keeps that intent steady, the band returning to a more traditional death metal sound which for me is a shame but this is still a strong track. One of the things that does punch through is the feeling that they are consciously being a little loose instead of being rigidly fixed to time. As a result of this you have a more organic touch to it. In any event its two for two. This upward swing continues with Covenant Ov Torture, a furious stab at old school goodness that Vader would be happy with.
The closing act consists of Mouth Of Hell and Singularity and its great to hear and acknowledge that they don’t drop the ball at the end. Mouth Of Hell is rapid, full of razor sharp riffs and that unswerving looseness. Its like a cart trying to come off the rails, tipping to one side before they manage to pull it back to relatively safety. It’s a strict combination of speed and brutality, a straightforward kick to the skull that is sure to scratch the itch of anyone looking for new death metal.
Of course it has to come to an end and Singularity holds that position. This takes another turn, mixing in a wicked groove to the head kicking arrangements they have been dropping here. I go on about how the last song can really make or break an album and be the reason for future listens. Singularity builds on the good work that started with Nyarlathotep and provides a strong finish that I really wasn’t expecting earlier.
It is a literal album of two halves, one that starts slowly and finishes on a high. In terms of extreme music, its certainly worth a listen and I would have loved to have heard more like Nyarlathotep because they did it so well. It certainly represents the moment where things picked up but ultimately you have a decent bit of death metal. 7/10
Kid, Feral – 2019 (Backpack Records) [GC]
When you see the writing process for this record began all the way back in 2018, you wonder what has taken them so long to get it released, apparently parts of the songs have been re-written several time and they wanted to really take time to make sur everything was on point!? 8 years is a long time to spend on an album by anyone’s standards, so is 2019 worth the wait?
It gets going with Funeral In A Grocery Store which is a bit of a whirlwind it has the essence of a great screamo track but the way it dips in then mixes the jagged Dillinger Escape Plan style guitars in there but it feels a little short, maybe I’m missing something but the build-up feels like it needs to be more dramatic to have the full affect they are aiming for?
Stop ‘N Go is a blur of noise over it 54 second run time and it feel like there is something there and I appreciate a short track more than most people but here the drama just seems to get lost, Substance is a bit more what I am looking for, the song has a bit more body to it and allows for a build-up and the emotion gets to really take the lead and the chaotic-ness of it all really takes it up to another level.
Medieval Poetry again has the same sort of stylistic vibe and carries the emotion forward on a seething wave of anger, which grabs the attention and makes you really invest into the sound a bit more its melds the unpredictable and the heartfelt nature that is needed and you can really feel the energy through the whole track and it ends in a gloriously batshit way as well which is always a bonus.
Pothead Archaeologist is a blink and you will miss it 51 second blast of unhinged noise that arrives, kick you in the teeth and then just leaves, no nuanced soft sections or emotional tug, just pure unbridled savagery which is nicely done and mixed in after a couple or more though provoking tracks.
With Memories From A Stamp Collection you can just picture a shitty practice room somewhere in the mid 00’s with 4 guys with t-shirts that are 3 sizes too small, skinny jeans, Converse and black Romulan haircuts just chucking their instruments about and diving all over each other and hoping a song comes out of it and it sort of does in a way, again the main word that comes back to me is chaotic and honestly I’m not sure if that’s in a good or bad way?
I Want To Be Your Canopy then of course just veers off in a totally new direction and throw in some black metal, just because, you know why not they have tried everything else so they may as well give this a bit of a go and honestly? It works it adds more drama to the overall sound of the song and gives it an interesting backdrop against the more emo-y sections an unexpected and savage mix of styles that compliment each other well.
Puddle Jumper is the last track to give us one last weird pummelling, it smashes together the emo soft bits with more unwillingly bonkers mathcore which is the basis of screamo and they absolutely nail it here.
Reading over the PR for this I wasn’t 100% sure what I was expecting really, what I got was lots of chaos and emotion, sometimes mixed together really well, sometimes they allowed their intrusive thoughts take over and let them get too involved and the sound got a bit too much and didn’t make much sense but overall, I enjoyed what I heard and would be interested to see where they go from here in the future. 7/10
Sleepbomb – Songs In The Key Of Conan (Koolarrow records) [Adz Redpath]
After over a decade of fluctuating lineups with a stable core of 3 members this San Francisco Horror/Doom metal band provides here their interpretation of what the original Conan movie from 1982 should have had as a soundtrack. This is an intriguing and attractive concept to a movie buff such as myself and seeing their prior influences on past releases including the mighty George Romero I was excited to broach this and hear what vision this band was going to put forth. as a whole.
The production work on show is very solid here and undulates with atmosphere throughout, balanced and well mixed with a great use of instrumentation on show here although nothing of any particular prowess or technicality and with a lot of repetitive themes and time signatures. At times it does feel like a click was never used although that only serves to give the album a more organic feel and does not detract from what’s on show here. Musically the tracks flow well although it’s hard to find any stand outs amongst this release as it truly does feel more akin to a movie soundtrack than an album of songs that you will want to repeatedly listen to.
This could be epitomised as great background music with truly solid production and some really spacious undertones and musical soundscapes, but feels like an overly contrived concept that in all honesty I will be unlikely to check again unfortunately and was quite a slog for a newcomer to the group to get through. They fulfil what is a very niche vision that within the movie industry may do well but for the average fan of doom or metal is unlikely to garner much interest .
I don’t like to go full Dave Portnoy but it does seem to be my way with reviews and this although well constructed fails to deliver more than a conceptual idea. 5/10
