A whole bunch of news has been coming to us over the past few weeks, and in there is something interesting for everybody: we have new videos, album teasers and new release dates coming up!

This is a DMB exclusive and we’re very happy about that. And proud. And honored! And it makes our cock tickle.

Ever since I discovered Red Descending’s Fragile Nation music video I’ve been keeping a close eye on the band and in touch with front man and bassist Bernard Shaw. An interview I had with him back in early 2010 can be found here.

Skip to the summer of last year, when the band released their Kingdoms album, their second full-length since they started the band in 2003. I did an extensive review of the album and praised its alternating nature between darkness and light, a struggle that is omnipresent throughout the record’s compositions. Great record and one you should definitely check out if you haven’t already!

A good deal of time ago – we were writing October 2010 – I featured a band called Atrum Aequora in a little potpourri post. Atrum Aequora is a female fronted Melodeath outfit from Melbourne, Australia, and it hit the spot because of its contrast between female cleans and grinding, technical Metal.

Since that time the band has gone through a few line-up changes – guitarist-vocalist Adam Donnellan left the band for example – and worked on a new demo, simply titled 2012 Demo, on which Grinding the Remains, the song we included in our earlier post, is a recurring guest. Happy to give it a quick spin!

Sylosis, from Reading, close to London, UK, is most definitely my favorite band at the moment and most probably my favorite band of all time. Their optimal mix of technicality and ‘song-sense’ is like a supermodel licking my ear lobes.

I’ve played their 2011 full-length Edge of the Earth close to one billion times and it still manages to intrigue and entertain the hell out of me. The songs flow masterfully, choosing the path that works best, like a small stream flowing down a mountain. The result is generally as logical as it is unpredictable.

Anyfuck, huge was my happiness when I heard the Brits have a third album coming out this year. It’s called Monolith and it will be released worldwide on October 9^th. Ahead of that date, Sylosis has released two songs off the album yesterday. We’ve got these tracks, occupying positions 8 and 10 on the record, lined up for you past the jump.

When You Scream is a five-headed Melodeath outfit from Osnabrück, Germany. The band formed in 2010 and consists of Chris (guitar and backing vox), Daniel (guitar), Matwey (vox), Michael (drums) and Sven (bass). So much for the band facts we managed to collect.

WYS delivered an album called The Alchemist in June of this year. Though not 100% sure, it seems this is their debut. The game is Melodic Death Metal, that’s all it says. Anyway, we took it for a spin.

Just bundling up these two suggestions I received for the sole reason that the members of both bands speak German. Poor excuse. Well maybe also because they make a similar style of chug-filled Melodeath. We’ve got in store for you: Hopelezz and then Under Destruction.

Portugal is a country that seems to be underrepresented on the map of metal, where even countries like the United Arab Emirates are gaining territory. Shadowsphere are actually the first band I hear that comes from the land of… er… yeah, what is this country actually famous for? Anyways, they’re from Portugal.

The combination of Metalcore and Melodic Death Metal has been a tried and true formula and has failed to really catch my ear. Now that Inferno lies on my plate, I feel that this style can be quite appealing, as what Shadowsphere deliver, seems to be a solid bite. True, the album name is not too original, but I like the low-key album cover and the first few minutes sound very promising. The album’s starter Within the Serpent’s Grasp (leaving the intro for what it is), is a very good song; it has good, intense riffing and it’s quite catchy.
A thing that immediately comes out are the vocals. Singer Paulo Gonçalves sounds very much like Kreator’s Mille Petrozza, and in this case this isn’t a shame: he copies Petrozza well. On the other hand, his growls seem to come along as enforced, slightly blemishing his rasps.

It’s a Swedish band operating in the Melodeath department since ages now – well, actually it’s since 1993. They are based in a place called Örnsköldsvik, which sounds so ‘Viking’ I just had to mention it. The band consists of six guys and have turned out a load of demos during the first ten years of their existence. After that followed two EPs and finally a full-length in 2010, titled Ode to Quietus.

Anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about today, as I’ve been informed Meadows End are working on something new. Recently they uploaded a lyrics video of a song that has not yet been released. The song’s named Masses Flee and it’s stated to be a first draft for the band’s upcoming album. Hence, we can say the song is still raw and unpolished. You would hardly notice though, as it already sounds brilliantly pro.

I know, I know. I’m taking my sweet goddamn time. The thing is, it’s not that I don’t want to review, it’s that I haven’t got the friggin’ time for it. Hardly catch enough sleep as it is.

But the positive side of this is that not having to – or rather, not being able to – review something means I can listen to music in a rather ‘unforced’ way again. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing with the four-song EP called Evil is a Necessity by Italian Melodeath / Metalcore outfit Karnæ. I’ll have to admit straight away that it’s not majestic, or even brilliant. It’s not massively technical or mimicking the build-up of classical music. But what it definitely is, is enjoyable! Very much so.

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.