Four Songs for the Left Behind doesn’t contain four songs. It contains five; four original compositions and one cover of Motörhead’s Another Perfect Day, all of considerable duration.

Over two years ago I reviewed an album by a German one-man band called Another Perfect Day. The project is the brainchild of Kristian “Kohle” Kohlmannslehner, who also runs his own recording studio. Said album, titled The Gothenburg Post Scriptum, is a masterpiece. Through the past two years it has proven itself that time and time again. Amazing melodies and cunning progressiveness are mixed with the deepest of death growls and many an unorthodox element. Anyway, masterpiece, as said.

Now, you may have noticed it’s been rather quiet here at The Baboon. There are multiple reasons, but the main one is that my time to review anything is pretty much reduced to negative numbers, as my job has taken me to China and I’m working my balls off. Second reason is that there’s no YouTube access in China, except through VPN, but that’s just too slow to load anything. The third reason is that I’m just a lazy pig and I smell of manure.

But then, the other day, I got a message from Kohle, about the release of his new EP, Four Songs for the Left Behind and I was offered a promo pack as well. Pretty much at the same time reader Shaft dumped me the links to all five songs on Four Songs and given my experience with The Gothenburg Post Scriptum I just couldn’t let this one slip. So working in negative time, here’s my review of Kohle’s latest achievement.

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”).

It wasn’t very long ago when I wrote a little something about a Russian outfit named Shturm. They are hot shit and so you should read that article if you haven’t already. I thought it worthwhile to sort out an interview with these chaps. Didn’t take long to get it arranged!

Thanks to Adar, vocalist and guitarist, for answering the questions and to Alex, from the band’s label, for arranging the interview for us!

Knowing that you will have picked up this news already some time ago, I still deemed it just for me to serve you this. You know, there may always be people that missed it and shit.

7 Horns 7 Eyes, from Seattle, is an absolute novelty to me, but I guess that’s because their first record is yet to be released. Still, the band are leaving a major buzz across the web already. Quite an achievement, and I’m not quite sure what’s fueling it. Other than that the upcoming shit sounds hot, of course.

Random hit on YouTube today: Germany’s World of Farewell. Self-described as ”A pleasant punch in the face for every Melodic Death Metal loving creature out there”. Pretty accurate.

Apparently the band have just got an album out, titled Immersion, the band’s debut. Just got the one song for you, but it at least makes me want to check out more. Which is exactly what I’m going to do now. I suggest you do the same. Here’s a good starting point!

Just got my ass handed to me by this stuff. It’s some very proper Progressive and Melodic Death Metal from Germany. Disillusion has been a band since 1994 and I can’t believe I haven’t heard about before.

Thankfully due to Ventilation Shaft now I have, who found out about the band on Last.fm. There’s a reason why I hadn’t heard of them though: their list of achievements is a tad short for a band that has been active for nearly 20 years. There are only two full-length records on it, one called Back to Times of Splendor (2004), the other simply Gloria (2006). According to VS, ”both are good but different in style”. Wouldn’t it be good to have a sample from both?

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?

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.

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.