Freshly formed Canadian no-nonsense Death Metal outfit Xyphos recently self-released a short, two-song single into Metaldom. It’s the second thing they release after formation date, somewhere in 2010. What Comes Before was a four-song EP, released in early 2011. A Casual Stroll through the Lunatic Asylum – which I think is a brilliant title and highly descriptive of the slightly sense-absorbing atmosphere that characterizes the two songs – followed in late January of this year.

The four men from Toronto take the bulk of their inspiration from classic DM bands, including Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Death, Gorguts and Morbid Angel and the result is something that sounds like a fist in the teeth: brutal, shattering and with complete disregard for feelings and emotions. Fans of the old-school Death Metal sound will definitely find something they like here.

I’ve got an interesting mix of Thrash and (Melodic) Death Metal to share today. It’s actually neither but both, hard to describe. But before we get into the details, let me introduce the subject band and its album at hand first. The band in question is called Last Transgression and it’s an American Metal unit, from a place called Prattville, Alabama, that has been active since 1994. For a band that’s geriatric! In all those years the band has released nothing but four full-length record, the last of which, titled Perpetual State of Collapse, came out in 2002. Until 2011 happened and they popped Cynic Verses onto the market of Metal.

Cynic Verses appeared somewhere at the end of October 2011 and is since available for legal download for just five measly bucks on the group’s BandCamp hide-out. As hinted at, that’s not a lot and I’m about to explain to you why that is. It all comes down to the fact that Cynic Verses is a pleasant album, flowing, natural, headbanging, pure. No bullshit, but a collection of ten good songs.

Where Equal Minds Theory went abso-fuckin’-lutely completely mental on our ass, another Russian band, called Cosmonauts Day, takes a whole different approach today. I’m not mentioning the two bands together here, or reviewing them so shortly after another, as the two bands are connected. Both hail from Moscow and they share members as well, at least guitarist Dima – the rest I’m unsure of, as I can’t read the Cyrillic on EMT’s album art.

But there are also differences, and they are larger than the similarities. Where EMT is completely fucked up Mathcore on some techno-club drug – I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way, as you’ll be able to judge from that review – Cosmonauts Day, named after a Russian holiday that was instituted after Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space in 1961, take an approach that is Sludgy, atmospheric, dreamy and melodic. And surprisingly harmonic.

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.

The good thing about EPs is that they’re quick to review. And so, when normal, paying work’s riding you whippingly, it’s easier to just review another EP than to dive into a full-fledged studio album that takes days to get through to and figure out completely. Some may have noticed: work has been riding my poor scrawny ass lately and as a result I haven’t been overly active writing here – it’s only thanks to the other DMB writers that you continued to get your daily fix – so now that I’ve got a bit of time, what better thing to do than chuck in another EP review?

The disadvantage of EPs is of course the same trait that is their virtue: they’re short. So when you stumble upon this really neat piece of work, cravings may be left unsatisfied. With Face of Ruin it’s a bit like that. The Milwaukee based proggy Death outfit released the EP in mid-2011 after they stuck three songs on it, supplying a quarter of an hour worth of shape-shifting emotions and mental states.

If you’ve been with us for a long time, you may remember that last May we had an out-of-the-ordinary post in which we presented just one thing: an album cover. It was the cover for an album then-to-be-titled The Ethereal Throne, in production by a Swedish band we’ve been following around for a while like a small dog sniffing a big dog’s arse. The band’s formed by two dudes, Patrik Carlsson and Andreas Åkerlind and though the album in question, their fourth since they started out in 2003, was supposed to be released still in 2011, they did launch it until January of this year.

I do not mind, for the simple reason that I know Patrik a little from over the internetz and I know these guys are a bunch of perfectionists. I’ve noticed it from their previous material as well. So a delay of a few months is probably fully attributable to this and must have had a beneficial effect on the record’s quality. I mean, it shows: this album is pure quality in a thick volumeous sauce of awesome with pinches of hot shit and drops of delicious old-school punch in the teeth. I mean: it’s good!

There are times, when reading about a band, that the more you read, the weirder it sounds, and then hearing the music only confirms this suspicion of insanity. This, by way of introduction, describes Hail Spirit Noir’s début Pneuma, a Greek ‘psychedelic Prog Black Metal’ project featuring members of avant-garde act Transcending Bizarre?, blending 70s-style occult Rock with a little Black Metal, and other surprises along the way.

Opener Mountain of Horror gives an indication of what’s to come: starting off with violins over an occult bluesy Rock basis not unlike The Devil’s Blood, and Theoharis’ blackened rasp on top, before a sudden transition into what can only be described as bass-high 8-bit Black Metal with glockenspiel and a synth line straight from Hawkwind, provided by Haris. The drumming (guest Ioannis Giahoudis) is also incredible to witness, even if the toms are reduced to a pitter-patter in the mix, and the bass (guest Dim Douvras, also mixing) certainly has moments of genius.

Some genres are just asking for a review, especially self-proclaimed “epic blackened Stoner Thrash” Metallers Hazzard’s Cure with their eponymous début album. It’s a fairly grand claim from the quartet, and one I felt I had to explore, especially given the interesting album cover. Those in the scene should recognize some familiar previous bands (Owl and Walken, for example), but the music itself sounds completely fresh and original from the deserts of… San Francisco?!

Psilocybin starts off with no fuss, some fuzzy groove kicks in with Hardcore screams possessing just a tinge of Old-school Black Metal, even if the music at this point is devoid of that influence. Hazzard’s Cure have clearly cut their teeth on the live circuit; the drums from Baechle are varied, yet tight and controlled, with twin guitarists Buckley and Corona bringing out riffs and leads all over the place. The band also excel at shifting tempo and section with ease, moving into a crusty-Punk-esque part before slowing down for a surreal soundscape of bottles smashing and vomiting, a sign of a true ‘bar-Metal’ band. Bassist Bergman gets his own limelight on the follow-up instrumental track, Meet Me at the Mountain, complete with harshly sung “whoas” which sound like they’re on one serious trip, finishing off with a relaxed late-Mastodonian guitar solo to segue into the next grooving track.

Hot shit, fresh from the press! US Symphonic Black / Death outfit I Am the Trireme, named after the ancient Greek / Roman type of battleship that was capable of ramming other ships and snapping them in two like matches – it’s a bit what the band’s music does to your head: skull-splitting – is about to release a new, five-song EP, to be titled Pray for Damnation.

The Baboon has got a real premiere this time, as IATT, a five-piece residing in Philadelphia PA, selected us to do the first review of the bleeder, ahead of all the rest of Metal Blogdom. Our fuckin’ honor!

The boundaries of Doom-Death Metal has been stretched again, this time by Greek act Hedon Cries. Their self-labeled “Atmospheric Doom-Death” is not quite as funereal or elegiac as expected, and adds a much faster tempo than the genre implies. After releasing two albums since 2001, the band underwent new changes in the form of bassist Stathis Karoutis and vocalist Christos Aidonis, and adding Thanos Lois on keyboard. The band, as a result, has shifted styles slightly into a gloomier Melodeath approach, akin to Novembre’s and Sentenced’s lovechild, with several other smaller influences hidden within The End of the Path is Nigh.

The record kicks off in style with a speedy number; the pounding drums from Papadoulas and Sentenced-like guitar-work of Boufas and Kopsaftopoulos keep the rhythm whilst injecting some melancholic melody in the chorus. The real center stage, and where the band excels, is in the guitar-work, combining a mixture of Tales…era Amorphis, Novembre and a touch of Agalloch circa Ashes… to create many a swirling melody within the songs.