Gaylord - Crown Of Joy (A Sublime Sun Thriving Amongst Dying Stars) (CD Review)

GAYLORD - CROWN OF JOY (A SUBLIME SUN THRIVING AMONGST DYING STARS)

01. Lay Down

02. Ghost Me

03. Dread

04. Shit Scene, Shit Bands

05. White Night Gaslight

06. High and Mighty

07. Grey Rainbow

08. Coiled in Dust

09. Obfuscation of Intent

10. Ten Wing Angel

11. Nailed Deity

12. Again and Again

13. None / Nothing

14. Judgement and Justice

15. Slitting Their Throats

16. Kvlt After School Xbox Kommando

17. Sublime Sunshine

Richard Alan Weeks (Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Synths, Percussion)

Guests:

Sally - Freelance R&B Vocalist

Alena Yashkina - Vocalist for Wicked Cat, Splitmind

Junayed Hossain Rayhan - Lead guitarist for Metal Fakir

thetrashyourmomthrewout - Freelance Voice Actress

Sevlier - Freelance Jazz Vocalist

Olga Nuit - Vocalist for Ara'Kus

Kieran Scott - Vocalist for Ashen Crown

Ember O'Woody - Freelance Metal Vocalist

Karl Willetts - Memoriam, Ex-Bolt Thrower

Aaron Marko - Frontman for The Swine

Rodrigo C Giacon - Lead guitarist for Sorrow In Vain

Nate Lewis - Bassist for Ante-Inferno, Bassist and Vocalist for Petrichor

Amara Wears - Vocalist for Aubzagl, Guitarist for Petrichor

Marc Hood - Vocalist for Cadaver Soiree

Baradiel - Freelance Metal Musician

Best known for their divisive debut, 2018's "THE BLACK METAL SCENE NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED", the band have decided to continue their assault on black metal as a scene and genre this time by merging black metal with many genres of "non-kvlt" music.

Frontman Richard explains: "With THE BLACK METAL SCENE NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED we used genre trappings to assault black metal with its own aural aesthetics. Raw guitars, sloppy riffs, gurgled vocals, and the bass turned way down. This time around we wanted to 'pervert' this 'sacred' music by pairing it alongside genres that most 'true' fans hate."

CROWN OF JOY (A SUBLIME SUN THRIVING AMONGST DYING STARS) has all the anger and ferocity of previous albums THE BLACK METAL SCENE NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED and WINGS OF THE JOYFUL but merges that fury with genres like trap, RnB, jazz, j-pop, hip-hop, and hyper pop to create a unique experience that old school black metal fans will absolutely abhor.

 Well 'Lay Down' may start in a traditional distorted, funeral doom style but something a little different is thrown in.

'Ghost Me' has some sweet harmony vocals intercut with some technical Death Metal whilst 'Dread' is a pretty straight forward Blackened Death Metal assault.

Some symphonic styled Black Metal with 'Grey Rainbow' is well executed and followed by some rappy stuff backed with nice piano playing.

'Obfuscation of Intent' just sounds like Dethklok!', Nailed Deity' mixes some beautiful piano with basic Metal.

Outstanding track 'Again & Again' is a fantastic brutal Death Metal attack which evolves into some great techno, this is followed by another great track 'None / Nothing', slow piano and narration into mid paced Death Metal, the mix really works well creating the perfect balance.

'Judgement and Justice' is weird, sort of hip-hop rappy thing, vocal works well but somehow sounds slightly comical.

Metal meets Pop with 'Slitting Their Throats', again suffers from bad mixing, nothing wrong with the metal meets pop idea, but just sounds like two separate songs randomly cut together.

'Kvlt After School Xbox Kommando' is so far the only track that sounds like Black Metal from ye olde tymes, I'm guessing the lyrics are not serious.

Finally we end on 'Sublime Sunshine' another mainstream melodic Death metal tune.

Mr. Weeks is clearly a talented musician, but the subversion of Black Metal is not apparent, there was a chance to be as innovative and controversial as Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park were to mainstream metal back in the day, it just hasn't worked.

I will have to wait for someone to come up with a Black (metal) Eyed Peas.

Rating 7/10

For Fans Of: Dethklok, Ghostemane, Siberian Meat Grinder, Mora Prokaza

Hybrid Nightmares - The Second Age (CD Review)

01.Lost
02.In The Labyrinth
03.Only The Dead Know
04.What It Means To Die
05.And Reach The Stars


Loki (Vocals)
Ben (Guitars)
Gummers (Guitars)
Jonny (Bass)
Batman (Drums)

Formed in 2008 this quintet has earned a reputation as one of Melbourne's best live acts through a chaotic, relentless and above all, entertaining live show. Taking influence from black, death, groove, folk and classic heavy metal, the 'Nightmare' sound is a sonic maelstrom that defies any categorization other than 'extreme'. Not content with simply playing to an Australian audience, Hybrid Nightmares are looking to the global metal scene and will bring their worship of the Cult of The Obelisk worldwide.


'The Ages' is a 4 CD collection that explores the rise and fall, evolution and extinction of mankind across four eras of existence, 'The First Age' was released last year.


About The Second Age: “After creation, there was an era of peace. Death and disease were unknown – everything existed in perfect order and harmony across the cosmos. It all ended, however, as we experienced death for the first time and with it, the first vestiges of chaos corrupted our society and heralded the dawning of a new age - 'The Second Age'. We as man are becoming more and more frightened of losing what we have, conflicts are breaking out. What will follow is an age where the corrupting influence  of power seeks to undermine the good in the hearts of man. The fear of death permeates the psyche of all men and where once a selfless and civil society lived in harmony, now a cancer grows at it's heart, gnawing away at the morals and ideals that created an Eden in the age before. This in an age of doubt, an age of uncertainty and fear. At the end of this age, we will see a rapid decay that can only lead to outright war as humanity struggles to maintain it's tenuous grasp on the principles that bind us together and allow us to progress. Every age has its story, and every story has its teller...Soon, the stories of ’The Second Age' will be told.”

'Lost'seems to be a 2 minute intro that pretty much goes right into the first song 'In The Labyrinth', which is just a straight forward metal song, lots of harmony with the guitars, a few timing changes, but essentially its more like blackend power metal.

The track then goes straight into a little acoustic folk song, really good as well, reminds me of an old Led Zeppelin song, but way too short.

Back to some Iron Maiden sounding riffs and then 'What It Means To Die' kicks in with more of that blackend power metal stuff, was hoping for more in the song, but there wasn't, it went nowhere, the same can be said of the last track as well.

Strikes me that this is just a standard Ep with a bit of filler and is nothing more than a death/power metal hybrid, they talk the talk in the blurb but produce nothing outstanding, a shame i was expecting a lot from this.

Rating 5/10
For fans of: Cradle Of Filth, Dormant Inferno, Children Of Bodom

Whorion - The Reign Of The 7th Sector (CD Review)

01.Flesh Of Gods
02.When The Moon Bled
03.Awakening
04.Blood Of The Weak
05.Forbidden Light
06.Gates Of Time
07.Immaculate
08.Arrival Of Coloss


Ari Nieminen (Vocals)
Ep MKN (Vocals/Guitars)
Dorian Logue (Bass)
Heikki Saari (Drums)
Antti Lauri (Guitar)
Vili Itäpelto (Synth/Orchestral)

Finnish Symphonic Technical Death Metal band Whorion will release their debut full length  album The Reign of the 7th Sector through Inverse Records.  Details for the album can be seen below. This marks the bands first release since the Fall of Atlas EP which was released in January of 2014.

After changing lineups since forming in 2009 and through years of composing, training & mastering new styles of playing material Whorion have come together to spawn what it is today, metal that will crack bones, while displaying powerful symphonic elements to create a feeling that the listener is sucked into the dark matter of space, slowly waiting for the worlds end…

The Reign of the 7th Sector was mixed & mastered with Anssi Kippo from Astia Studio (Ensiferum, Norther, Children of bodom etc.).

No intro (hooray!) this goes straight in for the kill and 'Flesh Of Gods' is one helluva opening track, brutal drumming and vocals, great guitar work and nice but understated orchestration.

Thats the way this one goes, song after song then we come to 'Gates Of Time' a full on orchestrated piece that sounds like music from some epic sword and sorcery movie, really good and a total surprise.

The next song 'Immaculate' is a brilliant symphonic death metal masterpiece, this one has everything from both genres mixed perfectly.

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Dimmu Borgir, Miellnir, Ars Moriendi, Opera Diabolicus

Mindfall - Post Apocalyptic Grind EP (CD Review)

01.False Decisions-Fatal Actions
02.Slashed Tongues
03.Dead Inside
04.Shadows Grow Deep

Juha Aunola (Vocals)
Andy Aunola (Guitar)
Jonne Tolonen (Guitar)
Mikko Pakanen (Bass)
Jari Huttunen (Drums)

Mindfall formed in 2014 and are from the City of Oulu, Northern Finland.
Band members have many years of experience in a various other bands playing music from
different genres.
The band members are defined by participation in the song writing process and the desire to provide an intensive gig experience to the audience.

Well no fancy intro from these guys damn if the first song doesn't just explode through the speakers with an unholy scream and then bang right into the powerhouse that is 'False Decisions-Fatal Actions'.Not as the title suggests "Grind" but more of a very well produced technical death metal with some real melody blending with true power.

Less furious but just as brutal is 'Slashed Tongues', highly rhythm drum patterns are punctuated by simple but effective chords, the chorus is backed with a great riff, really gives the song some structure and depth.

'Dead Inside' is another juggernaut of a song, driven by superb drumming, the song builds as the guitars come in, all the time the song is held together by the death meatl styled vocal, but one you can hear!

A highly melodic start to 'Shadows Grow Deep', almost lures you into a happy place but as was expected the power and agression comes in and smacks you around the head, but through clever timing changes they bring that melody back to perfection.

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of: Chaosanct, Xenochord, Spitting Blood

Dark Void - Release The Kraken EP (CD Review)

01.The Awakening
02.Nameless
03.100 Years
04.Release The Kraken
05.Anger Within
06.Near Death


Philippos Chrysostomou (Vocals)
Andreas Tryfonos (Guitar)
Trifun Moskalj (Guitar)
Christos Papadopoulos (Bass)
Panayiotis Soteriou (Drums)

Dark Void were formed by Andreas, Christos, Giorgos Hajistilis and Panayiotis late summer of 2013. They started playing mostly covers but soon started on original songs.

Late spring of 2014 Hajistillis decides to leave the band fot personal reason but he still remains a very good friend to dark void! the band at that time decided that if they wanted to rise above all the other bands they needed a singer, and thats were Philipos came in and finally Trifun came to fill in for the 2nd guitar.


Ignoring the pointless 2 minute opening sound effects and a bit of acoustic guitar, yep another band another intro as a seperate track as opposed to simply placing it at the beginning of the main song, which after nearly 12 seconds appears to start exactly where the other one ended.

Okay so rant over and on to 'Nameless', from its distortion opening it then hammers it way through the speakers for some full on thrash metal, no messing around here, ahh well thats what i thought until it went all "symphonic" for a second with keyboards??? then seems to move more into black metal timings and more of that keyboard, and no vocals so what is this "Intro" part 2???

Finally a song! and '100 Years' sounds the part musically, but the vocals need some work and why throw in death metal backing growls where they are not needed or fit?

'Release The Kraken', well this one is worthy of all praise because it samples Eric Cartman from the Cthulhu episodes.The music really does fit more with melodic death metal than out and out thrash, but it is a seriously good and heavy track, very drum driven.

Up next is 'Anger Within' and the first song that really ticks most of the thrash metal boxes, though i still think the vocals are to harsh.

The last track 'Near Death' starts with some pounding basswork followed by furious drumming, there is a slight effect on the vocal which helps it along, slightly reminiscent of early metallica, but dispite that, still really kicks ass!
Some brilliant guitarwork in here as well.

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Tempestora, Breathless, Reaping Havoc, Savage Messiah

Determination - Vision EP (CD Review)

01.X Rays
02.Parasite
03.Vision
04.Pestilence


Christian Reimer (Vocals)
Steffen Nevermann (Guitar)
Oliver Lusga (Guitar)
Rouven Haliti (Fretless Bass)
Martin Preising (Drums)

German band formed in 2012 as a recording project by Steffen (Ex-Weyland,Ex-Still Alive, Ex-Endless Distrust) and Oliver (Ex-Pangea, Ex-Advocatus Mortis), later joined by vocalist Chris (Ex-Pangea, Ex-Bonobos, Ex-Midgard), drummer Martin (Ex-Coroner’s Inquest) and then finally Rouven.
Of their musical style they say, "We describe our music as melodic, progressive, old-school, fat and brutal. But DEATH METAL fits best."

The EP was recorded, mixed and mastered at their own Shredsound Studio in Rostock.
The Artwork was done by the indonsiean artist Godfinger Arts.


Right from the start 'X Rays' comes across as a very well constructed song, clever timing changes help this 3 minute piece range from pure death metal, to progressive technical standards and even a brief symphonic breakdown.
All this is held together by a relentless wall of power from the drummer and an agressive vocal delivery.

Another symphonic style opening before 'Parasite' evolves into another well balanced mix of styles, at times this one borders on modern black metal in tone.

Again i have to mention that this next track 'Vision' also has that symphonic feel, i dont know which musician is playing the synth but he is doing it very well, the atmosphere it lends to the music is excellent.
This is also the first song that the fretless bass really comes into play.

Finally 'Pestilence' shows that pure power can blend with symphonic undertones, at no point does the death metal lose its impact and yet the songs retains a melodic edge throughout.

Rating 9/10
For fans of: Winter Gate, Cenotaph, At The Gates, Opeth, Dark Tranquility

Mors Principium Est - Dawn Of The 5th Era (CD Review)

01.Enter The Asylum
02.God Has Fallen
03.Leader Of The Titans
04.We Are The Sleep
05.Innocence Lost
06.I Am War
07.Monster In Me
08.Apricity
09.Wrath of Indra
10.The Journey
11.The Forsaken

Ville Viljanen (Vocals)
Mikko Sipola (Drums)
Teemu Heinola (Bass)
Andy Gillion (Guitar)
Kevin Verlay (Guitar)

Melodic death metal band formed in Finland in 1999, this is their 5th album.
As seems to be the norm these days we start with an intro, pointless as ever as this leads straight into track 2 'God Has Fallen'.
This is melodic death metal with a definate power metal influence, to be fair the only "Death" element here seems to be the gruff vocal delivery, aside from that this is heavy drum driven power metal full of clever riffing.

'We Are The Sleep' starts with a synth techo pulse and then proceeds into near symphonic territory until that vocal comes in and destroys that nice vibe.
Full of power and speed with melodic hooks and maidenesque guitarwork.

The next song to leap out to me is 'Apricity' starting with melodic keyboards (Though would like to point out that the record company bio doesn't tell who the musician is) the song then moves into a Scorpions like heavy ballad, this is a really nice interlude of melody and precision playing.

'The Journey' has all the qualities of an anthemic battle metal song, pounding drums and shout it out and sing a long vocals.

The last song 'The Forsaken' seems to manage to throw everything from melodic piano to full scale was care of heavy riffs and that ear crushing pedal work from the drummer.

I like this album, its "Power Death Metal" which is the perfect combination of the two genres!

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Iron Maiden, Children Of Bodom, Matron, Sylvatica, Xenochord