Formicarius - Lake Of The Dead EP (CD Review)

01.Lake Of The Dead
02.Under Darkness
03.Cosmic Keys

Lord Saunders (Vocals/Guitar)
Hægtesse (Vocals/Bass)
Nazarkardeh (Guitar)
Morath (Keyboards)
Aelle (Drums)

First conceived in the Winter of 2014, FORMICARIUS craft elaborate tempests of black metal that hit the listener like a finely sharpened sword to the skull: ornate yet destructive.
Elements of death and symphonic metal are called upon to reinforcethe gargantuan sound that can be heard on single Lake of the Dead.
Unsurprisingly, Formicarius are not a collection of upstart amateurs,instead featuring members of De Profundis, Premature Birth, Phyrexia and Maxdmyz: no strangers
to UK extreme metal.

Epic symphonic intro to 'Lake Of The Dead' launches into some furious drumming and complex riffs. This is perfectly under-scored by the keyboards, which dont intrude too much into the mix.
A typical black metal gruff vocal style, but one that you can make out the words, cuts through the music and keeps your attention.

'Under Darkness' takes you on a melodic journey of keyboards and guitars, and here i am nodding my head along to this nice sounding music then all of sudden it explodes into a full on black metal attack.
Some nice little timing changes make this 3 minute song feel longer and more epic, very clever, oh and a nice little breakdown with a mini bass solo as well!

Finally (already?) 'Cosmic Keys' another clever and well structured song, the keyboards stay slow and melodic allowing the rest of the band to draw on their various extreme and black metal backgrounds to create a monster of a song, a good reminder than once upon a nightmare british black metal used to be something worth listening too and if the album lives up to this little EP, then dear reader there is hope for the future!

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Dimmu Borgir, Phyrexia, Satyricon, (Early) Cradle Of Filth

DE PROFUNDIS - Beyond Redemption (CD Review)

1.In Contemplation Of Existence
2.Delusion Of Life
3.Nihilism Vortex
4.A Caustic Vexation
5.Into Eternity

Craig Land - Vocals
Roman Subbotin - Guitar
Alsksei Obradovic - Bass
Shoi Sengupta - Guitar
David Andrews - Drums

This is a classic example of what i mean when i say go to the gigs and buy from the band.I had never really heard of them, apart from the fact that James (Matron/Chaosanct) has played with them at a festival in europe, so when i saw them at the purple turtle for the first time it was an instant wow and yes they had their cd for sale, which i brought, have listened to and will now review (Even though it came out a year ago - maybe im not the only one who was in the dark about them?).

So what do you get for £8 ?..... 5 huge slabs of doom laden black metal coming in at 44 minutes!
Track one kicks off with a slow gothic intro which sounds like a slowed down version of the riff for Department S 'Is Vic There' then straight into wonderful doom in that traditional sabbath style but not sounding like sabbath, deathly vocals boom out of the speakers.

Delusion Of Life is more of the same but 7 minutes in there is some fantastic guitar work,while a lovely bassline introduces the next track which also allows vocalist Craig to do some great Shagrath styled screams.

The final track is a Maiden like instrumental which really needed to be longer, you just get into it then it finishes :(

Okay so they have new tracks on their myspace and are to begin recording a new album soon, but go get this now, its a classic!

Rating - 10/10

Get This If You Like : Opeth,Cathedral,Matron,Dimmu Borgir,Akercocke

Contact : www.myspace.com/deprofundisuk

DE PROFUNDIS,BLOODWORK,SPITTING BLOOD,JUST ONE FIX - Purple Turtle,Camden 02.11.08 (Gig Review)

De Profundis

Bloodwork

Spitting Blood

Just One Fix

Purple Turtle 02.11.08

Just One Fix

I came in as they were about half way through their set, music seemed okay, it has that duh duh sound that Beavis & Butthead loved, great to bang your head too if your not drinking.

Spitting Blood

The reason i am here tonight :)

On cd they are a very drum heavy band with aggressive vocals but live it's a different monster all together.

To start with what you get here is a band totally together and very relaxed, bassist Tillman and vocalist Dave constantly joking with each other and the audience (Packed i might add!) and new female vocalist settling in well after only a couple of gigs.

So we are treated to set of revamped album tunes delivered at high speed with dual vocals that would give Angela Gosgow a heart attack from Clara and Dave could wake the dead !

The drum work from Reuben is amazing and the shredding level from guitarist Jamie is at the top.

Go see them if you get a chance i highly recommend them.

Bloodwork

I'll be honest here, i didnt see much of them at all, as i was outside smoking and drinking,I caught one song and it sounded fine.

De Profundis

Well they were new to me, yes i know they have been around for awhile, and boy was i impressed with their black metal doom.It was all new to me but apart from some album tracks they threw in a couple of new songs which are up on their myspace and a brand new untitled song which someone in the audience helpfully named "Gerald" (Hi Gray !).

These guys are seriously good, nice long songs full of doom and death with lots of timing changes, a British Opeth ?

I felt sorry for the band as at 11 pm most of the audience left, as the last train from Camden is 11:15 the vocalist even apoligised to the fans left behind.It really is about time that Mayor Boris "Bendy-Bus" Johnson sorted this out!!!!

STU

Just One fix
Spitting Blood

Bloodwork
De Profundis