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’m sure you’ve noticed our output is a little slower than before. For me personally the reason for that is work and craploads of other shit I need to take care of in physical life. But more importantly, there are currently some initiatives being unfolded that will drastically change the future of The Baboon. You’ll find out soon enough!

Anyfuck, Amassado! They’re a project of Italian and Brazilian musicians that has just released its debut effort, Coracao Enterrado. I have no idea what this means, but I’m positive it’s Portuguese. This puppy has been out for a while. In fact, it has been sitting in my list of stuff to review for a while as well, but for the above mentioned reasons I didn’t get a chance to look at it sooner. Will do a short but full-fledged review now though.

So you write five songs that you name Bodhi Zephyr, Jean-Luc Picard, John Jameson, K’nuckles and Walter White and you stick ‘em all on an EP that you title Captains. I find that pretty original.

Why? I have no clue, I guess that’s why it’s original. At first I thought all of them were going to be captains, but that shit flies only for Jean-Luc Picard and K’nuckles. You can pull it wider and say all of them are TV / movie / comic characters, but even then I’m left with Bodhi Zephyr. Who / what the fuck is that? Well, the cool thing is that the music on Captains works about in the same way: it makes you think you see patterns and then proves you wrong about them.

I can’t really find anything about Into the Storm, except that they’re four dudes out of Seattle and that they released Captains as a sophomore to their 2010 album Amidst a Sea of Chaos, which I haven’t heard, by the way. I’ve heard plenty of Captains though, and it’s hot shit.

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.

Hot shit alarm, people! I received a promo pack for a highly lovable group of Portuguese Metallers. They are called The Firstborn and play a style that is as familiar and comfortable as it is refreshing and exhilarating.

The Firstborn are from a place called Amora in Portugal and have been making music together since 1999. They are five guys in the most classic line-up possible and have so far churned out exactly five full-length studio albums. Nothing more, nothing less. Their latest effort, following up on 2008’s The Noble Search, is called Lions Among Men and they aired it just over a month ago.

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.

Only four songs and with a mastering that leaves a lot to be desired. But man am I digging this motherfucker!

Wall of the Eyeless are just two chaps, SL and Simon. The first is Russian, lives in Sweden, plays bass and all guitars and grunts around a bit. The latter is Swedish and bangs the bongos. They found each other only a few months ago and already came up with a first demo, downloadable for free (‘name your price’) on BandCamp. Worth your while!

There are many bands that can be lauded for their innovation and eccentricity, able to meld together seemingly opposing styles into a unique blend that feels more like an adventure than a collection of songs. Unfortunately, UK groove metallers Place Of The Hidden God have not quite reached this plateau, although certainly not for want of trying. The band describe the album as a journey fully open to interpretation both lyrically and musically, symbolizing struggle against control either as a personal or government-wide vendetta (appropriate enough in this current political climate). Taking two parts polyrhythmic rumbles of Meshuggah / The Ocean with one part Down / Lamb Of God, they tread the line between groovy Math Metal and Djent with their début album In Liberating the Conscience, We Free Ourselves from Restraint. Go read/watch!

Sniff a smelly armpit and scratch your sack. Have a sip from the dead beer you’re still holding in your hand. It’s time to rise and fuckin’ shine people. Smash play on your stereo and bust that hangover with a shot of cheap scotch and burb. Louder please. If that’s what a typical morning looks like for you, I’ll bet you’ll like Burning Hatred too.

Why so stereotypical? Well, because quite frankly my fellow Dutchmen from Burning Hatred are what you’d call the stereotypical Death Metal outfit. Couple of unfit, longhaired guys that are just a bit too old for their trade. Got stuck in time twenty years ago, judging by their fashion statement, and it’s probably the last time they saw a barbershop from the inside too. Or a razorblade. Except the drummer maybe. Drummers are the only band members that ever grow up and have kids. Two daughters probably and they pull dad a little more down into reality. It’s brilliant such stereotypes actually exist.

Why? Because it allows all those other Metalheads who’ve left their head in 1992 to stay right where they are. It’s also fantastic that these chaps can be themselves without caring a hairy rat’s arse about what anyone else thinks. It’s why I love Metal! Anyfuck, Burning Hatred isn’t even that old a band; they started in 2002, did a couple of demos and shit and then had a massive exodus of members. Four out of five members took off, leaving only guitarist Martin to pull the cart. Didn’t take long before he found himself four new band members though, and they quickly set out to do an EP, titled Unleashed, which was released in early 2011. Let’s review!

We’ve been getting more and more Metal from the Eastern regions of Europe lately. And the good thing is that often we’re surprised by the standard of the material. This one’s no different. It’s a Ukrainian outfit called Ambivalence, based out of the city of Lviv. Silicone Magic is their third full-length since forming up in 2001. It’s from 2010 and so a bit old already, but this thing was a pleasant surprise!

When I first picked up the album I had a brief moment of ”hm, nice hot chick”, only to then discover the shriveled old tits hanging from that same chick’s body. She’s holding a pair of silicone boob-stuffings and is wearing some proper bling. Looked into the whole thing a bit more before I even started playing the record and it turns out this album’s concept is a complaint to society’s superficial focus on appearance, or in any case to those that are led by this. That’s an original topic for a Metal album, and it turns out also the music is rather original in itself.