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.

My first encounter with Sadistik Forest was through a sample of the above album, which raised my interest. However, I had to beg Niek for it in order to get Death, Doom, Radiation in my lap, but it has been worth it, because this album is a tiny little gem in the big sea of Death Metal releases.

This album delivers us a pounding old-school Death sound, which gets me bouncing up and down each and everytime I spin Death, Doom, Radiation. The style of Thrash-infused old school Death Metal isn’t new, but the songs are memorable and this is actually a really sophisticated record. With Sadistik Forest, it’s all in the little details, as the awesome logo shows too.

Some news to open up the stream of write up’s coming after the silence. I’ve been very busy with some stuff related to school and college applications etc. and Niek is away on a trip, so it’s been quiet for some time. But for today we’re happy to announce that Antivenom have completed their debut full-length Sacred Funeral.

Antivenom are a Christian Black Metal supergroup who got together earlier this year. The band consists of the members of Armath Sargon and White Funeral, both critically acclaimed bands on the scene. From what I’ve heard Antivenom is a natural extension on what both bands have been producing before: Raw Black Metal.

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!

Writer and colleague KevinP did an interview with our demi-god Tuomas Saukkonen, over at NCS. The man has passed by countless times on our website and is just short of having his own tag. Before the Dawn, Dawn of Solace and Black Sun Aeon are just three of the millions of projects and all of them are in high regard with us metalheads.

Kevin actually shared the link on our facebook, and I was happy to read the interview. In stead of watching with envy, I asked Kevin if we could share in his epic moment with Tuomas, and we could! So I’ll serve you a small fragment below and if you want more click the link after that. On top I’ll get you the video of their latest single Phoenix Rising and a link to a free download from Nuclear Blast.

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.

As you’ve perhaps noticed, I’ve been in a little bit of a dip for the past month, but I finally found myself on top again. Albums that bored me to death have come alive for me, but I’m not sure about Nowen’s Essence of Fear; a freight train of Finnish Melodeath.

The first thing that came to mind when the first tones of Essence of Fear reached my eardrums, was “Arch Enemy”. The vocals, the melodic guitars, they’re all reminiscent of especially the later work of the Swedish Death Metallers. Nowen however are faster, less catchy, but more groovy than the previously named giant. Essence of Fear delivers you just short of 50 minutes of Melodeath, with a splash of Thrash.

Time for our almost-daily portion of Finnish metal! You wonder whether we’ll be running out on Finnish bands shortly, but no worries, with a Metal band per 2,645 people I believe we’re not even half way. Today’s Medicated are a Melodic Death/Thrash outfit formed in 2005. Since then they have released a demo and two EPs of which Ways to Make You Fall is the last one. A pretty cool piece of work!

Medicated themselves describe their sound as being: “Melodic thrash and death influenced metal with big choruses, screaming and clean vocals, versatile rhythms and fast guitar tunes.” which is pretty accurate I can tell you, and it’s good too!

Later on in this short piece of writing you will find an embedded music video by a Finnish band named Stam1na. At some point you will see an act of dentistry being performed. Now, my girlfriend happens to be a dentist and so I showed it to her, asking her if it was how it’s usually done. She said “no, normally they bleed more”. But brutal dentistry isn’t the only thing painful that vocalist Antti Hyyrynen is subjected to in this video as you abso-fuckin’-lutely need to go find out after the jump.

But first a little more intel, as this band is apparently coming close to being a legend in Finland. They set things in motion in 1996, initially singing in English, but after only three demos switching to Finnish. Their list of releases is incredibly long, but contains mostly demos and splits. Full-length albums released count up to five so far, the last one, titled Nocebo, came out last week.

It’s been a while since I wrote a review, since my life has been filled with mock exams, auditioning for pop-rock bands (sorry guys, there’s more girls in that area), and the like. Encirclement has been lying around for a long time, so I decided to give it the final eyes closed spin, and jump onto it.

Although some people would’ve put old-school Death Metal as the genre for this album, I’m a bit hesitant. Yes, Encirclement clearly shows a Death-influence. But, where Death is clean, sophisticated and tight, these guys are harsh, raw and heavy. So, style-wise I’d place them somewhere between old-school death metal, for their death influences, and death ‘n roll for their rolling rhythms. Old-school Death ‘n Roll anyone?