When thinking of the recent rise in Deathcore acts over the past few years, most of them can be pinpointed to predictable areas on the map, namely in the US or the UK. One of the countries which doesn’t exactly spring to mind for a Deathcore act to be found is Belarus, but sure enough newcomers BFI prove that metal is ubiquitous and just as clear in mind as when it started off 40 years ago. The band’s name stands for “Belorussian Focking Idiots”, for reasons unclear until you give their début EP For The Brotherhood a spin. Placing themselves somewhere between Emmure and Parkway Drive with touches of proper Death Metal, they cut a clear and straight path in the allotted 20-minute, 7-track slot, with plenty of energy to burn.

The intro starts off promisingly with a melodic riff before kicking into a pseudo-breakdown, before an amusing cry of “Are you ready, fuckers? Let’s go!” from vocalist Neganov. The first proper track, “Last Night Together With My Friends”, lets the listener know the band’s intentions fairly quickly: breakdown-heavy chugging with some melodic noodling from Gleb Kondratyuk and Grischenko, backed up by a rhythm comprised of Volchek’s surprisingly audible bass and (presumably brother) Oleg Kondratyuk on the tight drumming. The comparisons to Emmure are fairly inevitable, particularly on the title track, but then BFI will pull out a tapped solo or Gothenburg riff to lighten the mood, such as on my personal favorite “Nothing Is More To Come”, which also sports an echo of Suffocation after the intro. Finally, the band decide to pull out all the stops on “Open Up Wide”, introducing a hilarious audio sample of “Ah fockin’ ‘ate pikeys”*, a strong melodic lead for the chorus and an outro comprising of a choir section.

Veil of Maya are new to the palette of Deathcore outfits I know (which isn’t too big). While Eclipse is the longest piece of work I ever heard from a Deathcore act, the others being EP’s and single songs, it left me craving for more, which is bad in the case of an album.

Starting off, Veil of May were kind of thrown into my lap by James Montheit of Hold Tight! PR, so they kind of crashed into my life. What first caught my eye was the running time and the number of songs, I mean, how can you write so many songs, and have such a short album? With only 28 minutes of playing time, it hangs in between of an LP and an EP, and there is not a lot of meat to be taken on. But that didn’t keep me from jumping in, and after all, I found Eclipse to be pretty good.

I’ve been exploring the web for a while and lately I discovered a lot of interesting new bands, some of which completely blown my mind, as they push the boundaries of what I held for possible. Some of these aren’t completely Metal, but all of them are exceptionally cool and certainly worth of your time. So enjoy the next half hour of Post-Alternative Blackened Punkcore.

Shining

First up are a Norwegian band called Shining, which is not really a name associated with the more serious, dark or violent themes addressed in Metal. It comes as no surprise then that Shining started out as an acoustic Jazz-quartet. However, after two albums, they started taking their music apart and evolved through a form of Jazzy Post-Rock to what they are today on their album Blackjazz, a dark combination of Industrial, Jazz, Deathcore, Alternative and Experimental Metal. In one word, Avant-Garde Metal, whatever that might mean.

What I know is that this is Ruskie Metal: Equal Minds Theory inhabits Russia’s capitol of Moscow. I know there are five band members and that they claim to do fierce live performances. Judging by that band pic and a whole bunch of other ones on their Facebook I’d say that’s true. I also would know the members’ names, but I can’t read Cyrillic. So then I’m clean out of facts and all I’ve got to go on is ‘ze music’ on this self-titled release I’ve got from the band.

Based on the date listed on the group’s BandCamp (you can also stream and buy the album there), the record came out in October of last year. It contains 37 minutes of blistering, face-melting mathematically-inspired ear-punishment, divided across eleven tracks. The division is a little unfair though; one song’s as short as twenty seconds, while the album’s closing song puts in over fourteen minutes.

[I decided to give you some more interesting information on the top of this review, in stead of the usual band name, album title and genre, of which you can make up the first two from the title of the review]

When I first got Persepolis on my plate, I was quite excited to hear it, take it apart and reassemble the image. However, my interest for any ‘Core-music went down to a bare minimum and I was left with a thorn in my side. But this week I decided to give it some spins and get on with it. A good decision.

Persepolis starts with a two-minute intro called 539 B.C. referring to the year in which the Persian king Cyrus ‘liberated’ the great city of Babylon, as the short monologue tells us. Following are 40 minutes of crushing oriental Deathcore, marked with Eastern style chanting, ancient Persian instruments and some interesting story-telling.
What I first found remarkable about this album is the fact that these are Indian guys singing on a quite positive note about an enemy empire which conquered (part of) their homeland and emptied it of its gold. However, when digging more deeply I found the following statement: “The sound of Dark Helm is the musicalisation of the journey of an ancient warrior through the sands of Persia and his quest to defend his throne, by bending time and cheating death.” Seems to make more sense now (stupid me, with my cultural and historical references).

Another one from Bridger’s pack. American again, from one of the various towns throughout that nation called Elizabethtown. No clue which.

Another similarity is that we’re dealing with ‘cory’ stuff again, though not quite as obviously this time. It’s crunchier, more brutal and will touch upon more progressive / technical forms of Metal, meaning it’s got a certain Djentiness to it, in addition to a strong focus on melody in the choruses. It’s good eating listening!

We have some wickedly brutal news tonight. California Deathcore outfit Impending Doom have released the first single of their upcoming album Baptized in Filth, called For the Wicked (as you’ve probably seen). The single comes with a lyric video, which seems to gain popularity in the Core scene.

Their Facebook page reads:

Formed in 2005, jumped right into the touring lifestyle and gained their success very quickly. The band has released 1 e.p. and 3 full length records, selling over 70,000 records world wide.

Sounds impressive, and it’s true, despite their Christian background and bold lyrics, they tour the world with the biggest bands in Metal, such as DevilDriver, Dying Fetus, Chimaira, Whitechapel, My Children My Bride, the list goes on and on.

Where my prejudice about Norwegian Metal makes me expect all Metal from Norway is Black Metal, I’ve got a similar – and equally fucked-up – rule of thumb about Sweden. It’s either Old-school Death Metal type of stuff or Melodeath that they produce there. Absolute rubbish of course and the examples are numerous. Still, it’s a bit of a default thing to expect I guess.

Today we add another entry to our list of examples that counter that coarse generalization: Humanity’s Last Breath. They’re a five-piece from the city of Helsingborg, where I know also Soilwork is from. A typical line-up of two guitars, a bass, some bongos and a voice, these guys produce something undeniably brutal and aggressive, often a shit storm of blasts and chugs, but also often melodic and harmonious. That is what I pulled from the band’s latest release, which was sent out into the world in early 2011 as their second EP since forming in 2009.

Arms of Enmity have been hanging onto us via our Facebook page, but for some reason, they slipped through our queue, so firstly apologies for that! From what I see, I can conclude that Arms of Enmity are primarily a live band, with only two songs up, while they already exist since 2006.

Musically they fall somewhere between Hardcore Punk and Deathcore, if you don’t mind. Logically that would be Metalcore, but they are a tad raw and non-melodic for that. However, the playing is very tight, although sometimes they seem to struggle a bit with the rhythm, as they seem to falter at times.

Hell, we’re up to date. Yesterday “Melodic Death Metal”-outfit Miseration put out a video for their song Dreamdecipher. Yeah, the Melodic Death Metal is in quotation marks because our holy bible (aka the Metal Encyclopedia) says that, but I can tell you, this is not Melodic Death Metal. Sounds more like Technical Grindcore to me.

Who are Miseration? You ask. Miseration are a Swedish band formed in 2006, and have since produced two full-lengths, on which they play a very heavy, Grindcore-influenced kind of Melodeath. Stylistically they are a very interesting band, and I haven’t really heard something like what they did on their first two albums before. Dreamdecipher however takes their sound to a less original height, although it’s still a good song of course.