This album came in with a (now not so)recent load of physical Russian albums from the above record label, and Niek was so kind to share in this late Sinterklaas present, he even gave me a choice! I chose Last Wail as a starter because I never reviewed, and never owned a Folk Metal album before. Now we’re here, seeing whether this album is worth our time.

Last Wail are quite a cool band as they provide the listener with an alternative spin on the whole female Death growlers-concept; some Folk Metal, drenched in Melodic Death Metal. It certainly is a feature that lifts Last Wail out of an depthless pool of Folk- and Melodeath bands that are already out there.
The Tale of Endless Night starts of with a lovely acoustic instrumental, aptly called Intro. From there, the band seem to run through their songs with ease, although that same ease tends to lean to boringness sometimes. A sole light of recognition comes in at the end when the band plays a version of Ensiferium’s Windrider, which is well done, but stands miles apart from the rest of the music, leaving it in the shadows.

I’m sure you’ve noticed our output is a little slower than before. For me personally the reason for that is work and craploads of other shit I need to take care of in physical life. But more importantly, there are currently some initiatives being unfolded that will drastically change the future of The Baboon. You’ll find out soon enough!

Anyfuck, Amassado! They’re a project of Italian and Brazilian musicians that has just released its debut effort, Coracao Enterrado. I have no idea what this means, but I’m positive it’s Portuguese. This puppy has been out for a while. In fact, it has been sitting in my list of stuff to review for a while as well, but for the above mentioned reasons I didn’t get a chance to look at it sooner. Will do a short but full-fledged review now though.

I am usually completely supportive of bands re-interpreting established styles of music, honoring the traditions set down by their influences and paying homage. However, there is a clear distinction between homage and copycat. French metalcore quintet In Trails haven’t quite crossed the border to the former, as proven in their début full-length Triumph In Suffering. Those acquainted with the Americanized version of Swedish melodeath will be instantly familiar with the sound here, combining elements of Threat Signal and Nightrage. Although doing In Trails do the metalcore genre justice, they never really establish an individual style, resulting in a feeling of re-hashing trodden ground.

After an intro made up of a melancholic guitar line and a continuous breakdown underneath, the album proper kicks off with “Kingdom Of Pit”. It’s a fairly standard metalcore number which does improve during the chorus with the Amenta-speed drumming of Leriche. The guitar and bass lines of Guerido and Allemand are entertaining on first spin, but quickly lose their appeal, especially during the frequent breakdown sections. The 4 solos on this album are evenly scattered throughout and provide light relief, particularly due to the over-powering crash cymbals exacerbating the breakdowns. In Trails do also employ some exceedingly fast sections which are more interesting (title track), but it’s not long before they drop into a slower ‘melodic section’ or a breakdown (“Virus Of Humanity”).

Two Paths came to me by means of two CD-ROMs, in one jewel case, in a box which was in theory able to hold fifty jewel cases, but was filled with polystyrene foam. These guys do handle their babies with care for sure, and after some heedful listening I can see why. Two Paths is an album which is very worthwhile and which should be appreciated to the fullest.

At the first few listens, I didn’t know what to make of this album. I heard influences from all different kinds of Extreme Metal-genres, but none of them was dominating the others really. The above mentioned genre is the closest I could fit without resorting to ridiculously long and extended genre identifications.

Nosebreaker. On the cover is a picture of a French Bulldog. Those don’t have a nose.

That aside, Nosebreaker is the debut EP of a Belgian, Brussels-based psychedelic Rock outfit called Coubiac. Or as they put it themselves, ”Heavy Chaos Rock”. The band is four dudes, P, F, S and HP, responsible for drums, guitars, vocals and bass respectively. I know no more. Let me briefly shine my light on Nosebreaker.

So you write five songs that you name Bodhi Zephyr, Jean-Luc Picard, John Jameson, K’nuckles and Walter White and you stick ‘em all on an EP that you title Captains. I find that pretty original.

Why? I have no clue, I guess that’s why it’s original. At first I thought all of them were going to be captains, but that shit flies only for Jean-Luc Picard and K’nuckles. You can pull it wider and say all of them are TV / movie / comic characters, but even then I’m left with Bodhi Zephyr. Who / what the fuck is that? Well, the cool thing is that the music on Captains works about in the same way: it makes you think you see patterns and then proves you wrong about them.

I can’t really find anything about Into the Storm, except that they’re four dudes out of Seattle and that they released Captains as a sophomore to their 2010 album Amidst a Sea of Chaos, which I haven’t heard, by the way. I’ve heard plenty of Captains though, and it’s hot shit.

The end of humanity. On the cover is an old hitman holding a silenced pistol. God who’s about to put a bullet in Humanity?

The album is Divultion’s first. The Ukrainian band out of Simferopol has been a musical unit since June 2005, but only saw its efforts come to full fruition with the early 2011 release of The End of Humanity. Titles like Worms Under Skin, Eat My Guts and Rotting give a strong suggestion of Brutal Death Metal and reality proves this right at least partly. Divultion does focus on delivering a product that is as loud and harsh as it could possibly be. On the contrary, there is a strong technical focus in the eight songs – there’s also an outro with Boondock Saints outtakes – that The End of Humanity is rich.

For some reason, Canada is Technical Death Metal-land in my head, easily taking the crown with Ascariasis and April 20, they will solidify their position with Derelict’s third full-length Perpetuation. We already covered the fact that two of the twelve songs were up for free download before, but vocalist and owner of Ricburn Media Eric Burnet offered us to take care of his baby. A duty I will fulfil with the greatest pleasure.

The fact that I mentioned Ascariasis is a bit problematic, because they are just fucking epic, and in such I have a hard time in objectively judging Perpetuation. It will most probably be the case that in my effort to not underestimate this album, I’d grossly overrate it, which is good for the band image, but bad for mine. So I’ll dive in while trying to forget Ocean of Colour, which we didn’t even cover on here. Where have we been with our meat-covered asses over the past few weeks?

Hot shit alarm, people! I received a promo pack for a highly lovable group of Portuguese Metallers. They are called The Firstborn and play a style that is as familiar and comfortable as it is refreshing and exhilarating.

The Firstborn are from a place called Amora in Portugal and have been making music together since 1999. They are five guys in the most classic line-up possible and have so far churned out exactly five full-length studio albums. Nothing more, nothing less. Their latest effort, following up on 2008’s The Noble Search, is called Lions Among Men and they aired it just over a month ago.

Clock Paradox, a Finnish band, formed only three years ago, have wasted no time in developing their slightly off-kilter blend of Groove and Progressive Tech-Death Metal. Their third demo-EP The Five Precepts stirs in several influences, with a new vocalist at the helm bringing further change from their previous groove metal sound.

The band take a risky approach, kicking off the EP with the instrumental F21, featuring a mix of Opethian and Meshuggah-like riffing from Hiltunen and Karhu (The Man-Eating Tree). It’s a mid-tempo affair with some strong guitar work, and the rhythm section of Tyynismaa on bass and Kuorikoski on drums do their job, although their limelight comes later in the EP. Confusingly, any pretense at the band being an instrumental group is instantly dispelled in Footprints, when Koskela’s (Abysmalia) roar emerges under a Death Metal rumble reminiscent of Gorguts and Cynic. Within the first two minutes, the vocalist throws out a mixture of Pyrrhon-like screams and growls, both of which kick ass, along with some receded spoken-word which is less to my taste. They have, however, now dropped the cleans which Karhu provided, which only adds to the old-school feel.