Moanaa - Descent (CD Review)

01.Sunset Growing Old
02.Repulsive
03.Lit
04.Zero
05.Lost In The Noise
06.Ion ...
07.... Mill
08.Away                          

Lukasz 'cHooDy' Kursa (Guitar)
Michal Pilik (Guitar)
Damian 'Cichy' Olearczyk (Bass)
Marcel Lekawa (Drums)
Maciej Proficz (Vocals)
K-vass (Vocals)

Polish post metal/doom styled band, formed around 2008.

If 'Sunset Growing Old' is going to set the standard, then this is going to be one helluva album.Nice acoustic start then moves into prog/jazz style, laid back and rhythmic almost hypnotic, then turns into a screaming death metal monster, did not expect that and yes there is a hint of doom metal as well before almost sounding like an old Pink Floyd track and then some neo prog to end with, all that in just 7 minutes!

Next track 'Repulsive' sticks to doom inspired slow and sludgy death metal, 'Lit' almost does the same until that jazz/prog guitar and rhythmic drum pattern comes back in for a while before taking the volume down with a simple guitar riff, as this builds towards the end some great vocals and backing vocals mix with more agressive instrumentation.

'Zero' returns to the neo-prog style with melodic vocals, but as i have come to expect with this, the pace and style changes bringing in that death metal vocal over near metalcore riffs.

'Lost In The Noize' at 9 minutes is a fairly straight forward doomish death metal piece, not much in the way of style variations, though does have a few intresting little breaks here and there.

'Ion' and 'Mill' is one song broken into two seperate tracks, why im not sure the first serves as the intro and continues right through to the next piece, which is another great mix of death metal followed by neo-prog rhythms.

Finally 'Away' starts with lots of echo guitar effects soon joined by a basic drum beat and downbeat vocals, while the guitar brings a little power to the piece this is a borderline gothic/doom song and its 4 seconds shy of an amazing 10 minutes!

Rating 9/10
For fans Of: Valerian Swing, Words Of Farewell, Marillion, King Crimson

Bhayanak Maut - Man (CD review)

01.I Am Man
02.All Glory To The Beard
03.Genosis
04.Stage 1 - Trema
05.Perfecting The Suture
06.It Knows
07.Bhayanak Maut
08.Stage 2 - Apophany
09.Now, Creation. Forever, Destruction.
10.Stage 3 - Anastrophy
11.XOXOXO
12.For Science
13.Princest
14.Stage 4 - Consolidation
15.Iku
16.Light Shall Conquer
17.Stage 5 - Residumm


Aditya Nair (Guitar)
R. Venkatraman (Guitar/Samples/Keyboards)
Ishaan Krishna (Bass/Guitar)
Rahul Hariharan (Drums)
Sunneith Revankar (Vocals)
Vinay Venkatesh (Vocals)

Guests:

Abhishek Kamdar, Kuber Sharma, Ishaan Krishna, R. Venkatraman and Rahul Hariharan (Additional Voices on ‘All Glory to the Beard’)
K. Venkatesh (Spoken Word on ‘Genosis’)
Eshwari Pandit (Spoken Word on ‘Perfecting the Suture’ & ‘Princest’)
Shalaka Pai, Eshwari Pandit & Anisha Singhi (Cheerleader shouts in ‘XOXOXO’)
Abhishek Kamdar, Kuber Sharma, Ishaan Krishna, R. Venkatraman, Rahul Hariharan, Sahil Makhija, Eshwari Pandit & Anisha Singhi (Additional Voices on ‘Iku’)

From Bombay, India "Bhayanak Maut" (Hindi for 'Terrible Death') formed in 2003.
They have produced 2 albums so far, 'Malignant' and 'Metastasis', this new album'Man' is the last piece of their "life-cycle of cancer" trilogy, with, and i quote; "Man is the biggest cancer to have ever existed."

This album comes complete with a 118 page story book.

Starting with some sound effects and samples as an intro (but forming part of the first song, hooray!!), 'I Am Man' becomes a heavy death metal influenced workout and that is the main sound you get from the majority of the songs, heavy, agressive, elements of technical guitar and drum playing and growl vocals.

So each piece titled "Stage" are short melodic instrumentals, this divides up the story into chapters as per the book.

Finally we get to 'Stage 5 - Residumm' one song and its 31 minutes long! except taht there are huge chunks of silence and then short bursts f music and finally at the end its like a song being played backwards and forwards at the same time, its weird, but intresting, if not a bit annoying when it keeps going quiet.

This is one helluva monster of a concept album, you will wait a long time to hear something this good for a long time, why? because music tends not to be made this complex with that amount of thought behind it.

Rating 10/10
For Fans Of: DevilDriver, Cradle Of Filth, Mastodon, Fragarek, Xenochord

Fragarak - Crypts Of Dissimulation (CD Review)

01.Savor The Defiance
02.Insurgence
03.Effacing The Esotery
04.Dissimulation: An Overture
05.Cryptic Convulsion
06.Psalm Of Deliverance


Supratim Sen (Vocals)
Kartikeya Sinha (Bass)
Arpit Pradhan (Guitar)
Ruben Franklin (Guitar)
Siddharth Manoharan (Drums)

Progressive Death Metal band from New Delhi, India, formed initially, in 2011, Karikeya, Ruben and Sagar co-founded Fragarak and had formulated the kind of music to be pursued with the initiation of the band. Arpit and Supratim were the much needed addition to the line-up to fortify the intent with the musical ideologies going in the same direction for the band.Thus the entity of Fragarak came into being.

Fragarak came into existence in early 2011 and laid the foundation for one of the most promising acts to newly emerge out of India that year. The band draws revelation from “Fragarach”, a legendary sword from the Celtic mythology.

Fragarak is a lethal blend of melodic tunes accompanied by intense technical rhythms, supported by fiercely independent bass lines, bolstered with decimating drumming, and channeled by lyrical themes delivered through bestial vocals.
This is a re-issue of their 2013 self released album.

On listening to the first song 'Savor The Defiance' i'm struck by a few things, firstly that they have an acoustic intro that is included as part of the song, next that the music is for the most part at least, straight forward modern progressive metal as the song goes along it add's some technical thrash elements, the only part of this which could be classed as "Death Metal" is the harsh vocals, which i have to say dont fit the music, a clean vocal would have made this perfect.

'Insurgence' is different again, more agressive techival death metal with piggy grunt vocals, only the acoustic breakdown saves this one, with its really nice harmony backing vocals.

The next song is borderline Extreme Metal, again great music and the harsh vocal style works well on this one, thanks in part to the backing vocals breaking it up.

After another nice acoustic piece we end with some more death metal that at times sounds more like black metal.

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Chaosanct, Skaldic Curse, Xenochord

Dormant Inferno & Dionysus - Beyond Forgotten Shores (CD Review)

Dormant Inferno
01.Veil Of Lunacy
02.Deliverance
03.A Once Holy Throne (Incantation)

Gautam Shankar (Vocals)
Sunny Bhambri (Guitar/Bass)
Lenin Kharat (Keyboards)

Formed in 2009, Amidst the clutter of Thrash, Death & Metalcore bands in Mumbai, two guys decided to take a different route and play Doom Metal back in 2009. Influenced by varied bands Dormant Inferno aims at attaining a sound which is minimal yet captivating. Dormant Inferno hopes at exposing the Metalheads in Mumbai to Doom Metal, a beautiful yet ignored genre of Metal.

Starting off with a pretty straight forward modern metal workout 'Veil Of Lunacy' has no elements of Doom at all, the acoustic sounding breakdown around 3 minutes in is well played and then starts to come to life as darker chords come in and some evil sounding vocals appear.

'Deliverance' is a bit more doomy but then ends up sounding more like Iron Maiden, okay with death meatl growl vocals and then just like the previous track it goes all quiet with another acoustic breakdown and with added hushed vocal, expecting this one to then go into Doom, well it doesn't, almost symphonic metal yes, doom no.

Well for the last song 'A Once Holy Throne' can we get some doom? Nope again just metal, might have a dark edge to it but it aint doom.

Rating 4/10

 Dionysus
04.Beneath The Skies Of War
05.Rain

Sheraz Ahmed (Guitar/Drums)
Umair Ahmed (Guitar)
Waleed Ahmed (Vocals/Bass/Acoustic Guitar)
Rauhan Lasharie (Flute/Synth/Violin)

Dionysus is a Death/Doom band from Lahore, Pakistan, and thats about all the info i have on them im guessing they formed around 2010.

'Beneath The Skies Of War' and still no sign of Doom metal, this is more of a mix of death/extreme metal with a slight nod to a couple of doomish chords.

And here comes the 'Rain' for another death metal inspired workout, at times more melodic thrash than anything else, this ones saving grace is the last few minutes of clever use of acoustic instruments and a bluesy/power metal solo.

Rating 6/10

So what should have been a blistering doom split ep, turns out to be another dissapointment, have these people never heard of Electric Wizard or Cathedral???

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

Orion - On The Banks Of Rubicon EP (CD Review)

01.Oh Sweet Ebullition
02.Devoured Existence
03.Astral
04.My Dying Prayer


Vigneshkumar Venkatraman (Guitar/Vocals)
Ashwin Kulkarni (Guitar)
Anshuman Bhattacharya (Bass)
Pritesh Prabhune (Drums)

A progressive death metal band from Mumbai formed in 2009 who attempt to forge a link between Opeth and Cannibal Corpse.

A very melodic start to 'Oh Sweet Ebullition' and this is sounding more like euro technical power metal, then it switches to a slow pounding riff with death metal vocals, weirdly this one keeps changing pace, getting increasingly technical with complex drum patterns and guitar work.The vocals also chnage to highly tuneful (well for a minute or so anyway), then a mix of everything i just said as we head to the end of this opening song.

'Devoured Existence' sticks with that tech power metal vibe and death metal vocals, the next song 'Astral' is a different beast though.
Almost doom to start with it then turns into an american sounding heavy metal song, at times reminiscent of Soundgarden, half way through it suddenly becomes Cannibal Corpse and then finally returns to the melodic heavy metal sounds.

'My Dying Prayer' is modern speed metal tinged once more by the death metal vocals.
All in all this is a great EP and for a band who somehow wanted to find that link between Opeth and Cannibal Corpse have managed to do so via a power metal technical route.
One to watch!

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of: Opeth, Xenochord, Cephalic Carnage, Biomechanical, Mastodon