Having recently come off a US tour with fellow Muskegonites The Omega Experiment, Technical Deathcore quintet Bury The Silence have released their sophomore EP via Rogue Records America. The Architecture Of Struggle EP retains similarities to their début Phobiotic EP, although a new vocalist has meant a shift in another direction. Taking orders from The Faceless, All Shall Perish and The Black Dahlia Murder, they cook up a 19-minute morsel filled with the mandatory noodling guitar work and breakdowns. However, never fear that this is a Beneath The Massacre castoff, there is strong songwriting to be had as well.

At first glance, the most striking element of this EP is the number of influences thrown into the pot, most prominent of which being The Black Dahlia Murder. The intro is akin to a horror-orchestral version of “Unhallowed”, sans spoken word, which sadly undersells the band as a first impression. Better to skip to the main meal, where “The Jealous Heart Of A Weak Man” provides ample twin-riffs and harmonized solos, with a strong rhythm section to back it up. New frontman Garvey has several Strnad-like moments, although his lows recall more Oceano or All Shall Perish. The song improves as it continues, particularly in Barrett’s bludgeoning drumming, and the production ties everything off well, if not quite as refined as I’d prefer it.

Since the rise of Deathcore in the ‘00s, I’ve been following the various strains of it with mild interest, seeing it develop towards melodic, djenty or brutal tendencies. Firmly in this latter camp, US quintet Labyrinthe have unleashed The Depths of Hell this year, their début for Tribunal.

Taking notes from acts such as Suicide Silence and Carnifex, the band go one stage further and incorporate some of modern Brutal Death Metal’s characteristics, taking Ingested’s Surpassing the Boundaries of Human Suffering as a navigation point. As you can imagine, this record is just a little bit heavy.

With my work pressures slowly decreasing, I can slowly but steadily start to think about writing again. I did a double dose yesterday, so why not repeat that for today?

This one’s been spamming my inbox for a while; must have had like 400 e-mails announcing the coming of this album. Ignored ‘em all for months: no time. However, I did really enjoy A Wanted Awakening’s previous effort, an EP called Rebirth that I reviewed well over a year ago. It had some initial flaws and was later remastered quite successfully. Now they’ve got a full-length up, Catharsis, released about a month ago.

In a sudden bout of spontaneity, I found myself on a train heading down to London, bound for a concert in a new venue and a rather motley lineup of punk and metal. The Purple Turtle in Camden is a cozy little venue with a bar alongside the stage and boasting a very competent sound system/team. I pitched up just as the first act, the amusingly titled The Cockrockets, were doing a soundcheck.

Following a period of instability and line-up changes, English tech-death purveyors Foreboding Ether release ‘Beyond Conjecture’ – a punchy, unrelenting effort that showcases a band with great promise.

As native of the area of England I was raised, I feel a degree of pride reviewing the second EP from Foreboding Ether. Just where the hell were decent local bands like this when I was growing up? A friend of mine introduced me to this band over the summer and I figured they were a good place to start with my first review for the site. Seriously though, local scenes have gotten a shitload more sophisticated since my youth. This is the kind of band local kids are going to see these days!? When did this happen? How old am I!?

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).