Just got a message about this band called Shturm. I cannot begin to compare this to anything I’ve ever heard, but it’s good. Boy is it GOOD!
Shturm is a group of four guys from Krasnodar, Russia, a city located in the South-Western corner of the country. Taking a quick look through the band’s profile page on Encyclopaedia Metallum, my guess is the band started out in 2003, doing a brutal sort of Black Metal. Their first record came out in 2004 and carries the title unambiguous title Fresh Christian Meat.
Stepping forward in time to the current year, the band released its third album, called Karmaruna. I don’t proclaim to have heard anything more of that than the one song for which they released a video, but that does seem to suggest the band have drastically developed their style since 2004. I’ve lined up the video past the jump.
I’m dealing with limited intel here, as Encyclopaedia Metallum seems to have been brought down by the FBI – wouldn’t worry too much yet, it’s April 1st – and the band’s own Facebook page contains a bulleted time line that I’m basically too lazy for to read.
I’m not completely in the dark though. I know EmpactiC is Polish and consists of five dudes. And that the band was formed in 2005 and has recently released its debut full-length. This album is titled Gods of Thousand Souls and contains eleven songs of a crusty sort of Melodeath. Has a bit of an Old-school flavor to it too. The album was released through Terrasound Records from Austria on January 20th and is distributed through the German Twilight mail-order company.
It’s been quiet for a long while with Noumena. At least as far as any releases from the Finnish Melodeath outfit go. Their last official release stems from 2006 and is called Anatomy of Life. Then things turned relatively silent, though the band is still doing gigs and does the occasional post on its website. Apparently, Rufio is a guy that regularly checks into that site, because he spotted a new song there that was aired in late November. He spotted it in early January already, it’s my fault that we didn’t run this post any sooner.
At this point I have absolutely no clue what’s going to happen with this song. New EP? New album? Beats me, all I know is that the song exists and I don’t feel attracted to the thought of digging out the rest. Don’t have time for it either. But if any of you knows more, please don’t hesitate to share! Hooray for lazy bloggers!
That’s a four-word, descriptive title and so my first thoughts were that I’d be dealing with another half-arsed American Deathcore band again. Wrong! At least partly. Yes, this material is American, the band is from Boston, Massachusetts, but no this isn’t really Deathcore and it’s certainly not half-arsed. The band itself describes their game as ”modern Death Metal” and state that ”they do not seek to follow trends”. That’s good, I like bands that find their own path into global appreciation.
Your Pain is Endearing was formed in 2008, combining a blast-in-the-mouth brutality with pure aggression and also ”technical mastery”. Sounds like a billion notes per minute then, doesn’t it? But the truth is that these guys haven’t lost track in their search from churning out the most complex sequences of notes in the most teeth-breaking manner and are building songs that work.
That’s twice in two days. Not only because the band in my most holy opinion is a metaphorical hot piece of ass, but also because today’s video wasn’t released too long ago and I feel bad about having missed it before. I’m a sloppy motherfucker sometimes.
Just a quick dump of awesome here today. As an operator of a Metal blog, I find that my name is on the mail list of a whole load of different labels and PR agencies. Consequently the amount of news messages poppin’ into my mailbox on a daily basis is quite huge, to use an understatement. Usually I open them, check for one prerequisite that’s usually missing and then disregard them. What’s the prerequisite? There has to be a link to a video! I’m not copying prefab news statements, but need something to talk about. Logical second requirement then is that the video tickles my long John and with this one that has definitely been the case! More than definitely.
The news message that was sent to me in the first place already hinted at this being good shit. It said: ”Betraeus to support Xerath and Scar Symmetry in the UK”. Hadn’t heard of Betraeus yet, but Xerath and Scar Symmetry are a couple of big names and high quality bands and I didn’t figure they would hire the first bunch of loose guns to come and play their show opener. Looked into things a bit further and it turns out these guys are definitely a rising act in the UK Metal scene and this is probably just one of their first steps.
Heidevolk is definitely doing something right. Their fourth studio record Batavi is to be released next week and the record’s first video is their most professional to date. It’s received a massive load of views already. They’ve also managed to strike a deal with Napalm Records, one of the better and bigger labels in Metal.
When we interviewed one of the band’s two vocalists, Joris Boghtdrincker, last October, he explained to us the meaning behind Batavi. ”The Batavi were a tribe that came to our country around 50 BCE, and settled the area close to where we live. They encountered the mighty Roman Empire on its northernmost fringes on the mainland. By allying with them they effectively created a buffer between Rome and the Germanic tribes. They paid their taxes by supplying the Roman army with warriors, that were sent to various parts of the empire. The fighting and horse riding skills of the Batavians were famed, and they even served as bodyguards to Nero and Tiberius. Eventually they revolted against the empire. Needless to say, their story is very inspiring to us so we decided to do a concept album based on their early history.”
We’ve had our little romance with US Grindcore-outfit The Right Wing conspiracy. First we reviewed their third album Alternate World and after that guitarist/vocalist Rafael Ortiz was kind enough to explain some aspects of Alternate World to us in an interview. Now this two-piece are back with a video for their song Mental Block.
The song is only 36 seconds long, but I liked the low-fi music video that went with it, perfectly conveying what the music and lyrics feel like. To quote myself: “Alternate World is a wonderful piece of Grindcore. The original concept (that is within the realm of Grindcore), together with the excellent songwriting and the more than decent musicianship make for something worth getting.”
Here’s another quick one for you guys (and those couple of girls over there, yeah, we know you’re there). I’m still up to my ass in work and was just skimming over a couple of sites before hittin’ the shower and bed when I saw on MetalSucks that there’s a live perfomance video of Deliver Us From Evil’s song Death Mortar. When I saw this news I thought “what better way for my peeps to start their Friday?”.
Niek and I are both fans of this band and you can find his review of their album Behold a Pale Horse here and his review of their EP Still I Rise here. Death Mortar is from the EP. Have a hell of a Friday!
US Prog Metallers SiIent Lapse have just released the video to their song The Wake, of their debut album Birthright. I’ve been watching these guys since their debut came out and I must say that their work so far is pretty impressive. Birthright is a 53 minute album that not only shows us style and good songwriting, but is also very pleasant to hear.
The guys have also released a short video which explains part of the story, and from what I picked up it’s about a guy trying to get rid of his evil side (if I remember it correctly). Anyways, I’m embedding the video for you after the jump so you can see for yourself.
