Mindful Of Pripyat - ...And Deeper I Drown In Doom (CD Review)

01.Containment
02.Liquidators
03.Chernobitch
04.Cleansed By Fallout
05.Lone In Town
06.Deterrence 0
07.Deep Water Coffin
08.Mindful Of Pripyat
09.Oblivion Descends
10.Rusty Skin
11.40 Seconds
12.Maruta
13.Rabid
14.G.W.I.
15.Impressions Of A Sick Mind
16.Contagion



Gio (Drums/Vocals)
Tya (Vocals/Noise)
Giu (Guitar/Bass/Vocals)

Grindcore/Death Metal band from Italy, formed in 2014 to create a blast and scream  mixture of sickening grindcore/death noise, in vein of old school past acts like Napalm Death and Terrorizer.

14 original hi-speed smashes in the face, its incredibly fast and full of screaming and a wall of noise, in other words its a throw back to the birth of the genre without compromise.

In fact you get lulled into this false sense of security right from the start with 'Containment' which has this slow synth pulse, i wonder if they are doing something different? I asked myself before getting smashed over the head by some stunning brutality.

About the only song here that has a bit more to it is 'Mindful Of Pripyat' at 2 minutes and 12 seconds the longest track and one which has distorted doomy bits between the screams.

Add to this 2 cover versions, 'Oblivian Descends' by Unseen Terror and 'Contagion' by Defecation and we have a full and wellm executed album of Grindcore.

Rating 8/10
For fans Of : Napalm Death, Electro Hippies, Unseen Terror

Valentine Wolfe - The Nightingale- A Gothic Fairytale (CD Review)

01.Black Feathers
02.Dark Desire
03.The Place Where Evil Grows
04.Inside My Nightmare
05.Devil's Bane
06.Darkling, Listen
07.Twisted Melody
08.Precious Moments
09.Moonlight Prayer
10.Belladonna, Deadly Nightshade
11.You Could Never Have My Heart
12.Ghost Of Her Self


Sarah Black (Vocals/Piano/Harpsichord/keyboards)
Braxton Ballew (Bass/Programming/Electronics)

Hailing from South Carolina, Braxton Ballew and Sarah Black have been composing and performing music together as Valentine Wolfe since 2006.
Both coming from a classical background, with qualifications to back it up and hold graduate degrees from the University of Georgia, where they studied electronic composition, Ballew is also the Education Director of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.

Perhaps it is no surprise that their scores have been heard in theatre productions of The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale and Twelfth Night.What may be a surprise is their love of Metal, Goth and Industrial music and the very clever way that they put all their influences and styles together.

What surprised me after the first listen was how they put their music together to sound like a full band complete with drums and guitar, when in fact neither are on the album!
As they said when i aksed them; "Just us, Sarah and Braxton, no guitars all the distortion parts are double bass and we program the drum loops ourselves."

Time now i think to hit play and listen to some of this self styled 'Victorian Chamber Metal'.

'Black Feathers' has a moody and atmospheric
 opening before turning into a solid commercial sounding symphonic rock song, really love the live sounding drum sound that drives this piece, great distortion riffs and harmonic keyboards, now over this is a
beautiful operatic soprano vocal and as the song progresses we are treated to some amazing double bass playing, sounds more like a cello to me (but what do i know?).

Now 'Dark Desire' is a hybrid of gothic rock and classical, but this one has a rock opera feel as well, reminiscent of Sarah Brightman's songs in the film Repo! The Genetic Opera, again driving drum patterns and that double bass make for a perfect mix to both move you emotionally and in a bang your head kinda way.

Moving into slightly different territory with 'The Place Where Evil Grows' as this uses more electronic samples and effects on the vocals, this time the double bass sounds like a violin as well.

Somehow on the song 'Inside My Nightmare' Braxton manages to get that double bass to sound like Simon House circa 1974, dont know how he can create so many amazing sounds from guitar to violin on it, but he does!


'Devils Bane' may have a solid rock sound but the vocal style whilst still operatic has a neo-folk feel to it, this helps create an intresting blend, the same can be said of 'Darkling, Listen' though this track has some more of that awesome drum and double bass playing set into some timing changes.

By far the heaviest song so far is 'Twisted Melody' for underneath that harmonic vocal lurks some evil heavy metal riffs.

After more of the same with 'Precious Moments' complete with some frantic drumming towards the end (yes i know its not real, but they have nailed the sound to perfection).

Heavy Metal meets Industrial on 'Moonlight Prayer' and once again it is that double bass playing that continues to astound me, so many different sounds!
This song has a lot going on it, different timing changes and lots of backing vocals and for some reason parts of this remind me of Rocket From The Crypt's 'On A Rope'.


So can Industrial influenced metal, operatic singing and Harpsicord go together?
'Belladonna, Deadly Nightshade' proves that the answer is "yes" and clearly anything is possible with these two talented and inventive musicians.

More drum driven power with 'You Could Never Have My Heart' and more outstanding double bass playing.

Finally 'Ghost Of Her Self', a slow and dark goth/opera piece, great vocal double tracking, solid as ever musical backing, more great distorted riffs and (yes i'm gonna say this again) the drum and double bass playing is just perfect.


Rating 9/10
For Fans Of: Epica, Emilie Autumn, Rasputina, Angtoria, Mr Doctor's Devil Doll , Apocalyptica

Facebook: Valentine Wolfe

Chainsheart - Leaving Planet Hell (CD Review)

01.Soul Kingdom
02.Breeze
03.Flames That Rise
04.Mystery
05.Final Destination
06.Return To The Stage
07.Points Of You
08.Never Stand Still
09.Dangerous Drop
10.Journey
11.The Spell



Yiannis Savva (Vocals)
Kikis Apostolou (Guitar)
Alex Chamberlain (Guitar)
Paris Lambrou (Guitar)
M.G. (Drums)

Guests:
Bob Katsionis (Keyboards)
Nicholas Leptos (Vocals)

Classic hard rock/heavy metal band from Cyprus comprised of seasoned musicians, all of whom are extremely passionate rockers and this is clearly evident throughout their music and performances. The band began in 2011 as the solo project of vocalist Yiannis Savva who soon after decided to form a band, thus CHAINSHEART were born.

In late 2012 the band self released their first album “Just Another Day”, a purely hard rock album, it received positive feedback from press and media. The band however underwent several line-up changes and has finally found its true sound and style - classic heavy metal.


First three songs, really do fit that classic heavy metal style from the 1980's, full of melody and powerful vocals, nice guitar solos etc, then comes 'Mystery' which reminds me a bit of that bloody awful Scorpions ballad.

We get back on track with 'Final Destination', pounding drums, great riffs, it all moves along at a great pace, as do all the rest of the songs, see the thing here is that its all sounding nice and "Retro" but this is 2015, it doesn't seem to have any modern elements, in all fairness this is an 80's euro metal album and if you look back with fondness at those days and have everything ever released and want to add something new to the collection i suggest you rush out and grab a copy.

Rating 7/10
For Fans Of: Scorpions, Dio, Dokken

Mare Infinitum - Alien Monolith God (CD Review)

01.The Nightmare Corpse-City Of R’lyeh
02.Prosthetic Consciousness
03.Alien Monolith God
04.Beholding The Unseen Chapter II
05.The Sun That Harasses My Solitude



Georgiy Bykov (Guitar/Bass/Programming)
Andrey Karpukhin (Vocals)
Ivan Guskov (Clean Vocals)



Russian doom band first appeared in 2011, this is their second full-length album which invites you to a new journey through the endless sea. The musical material of the album is a logical continuation of the debut release 'Sea Of Infinity' and includes 55 minutes of high-quality doom death metal.

"The crew of the Mare Infinitum ship will exalt you to the space heights, where a massive meteorite attack threatens to eliminate every living being on the surface of planet Earth, and then sank into the dark Lovecraftian depths where unknown Cthulhian creatures plunge you into the abyss of an imminent terror."

So 'The Nightmare Corpse-City Of R’lyeh' may start in a fairly basic way, but as this piece moves forward we get treated to a lot of different ideas, the clean and death metal style of vocals blend perfectly, then add to this some near symphonic elements, funeral doom to heavy almost sludge rock and faster death metal passages.

'Prosthetic Consciousness' is on the face of it a funeral doom paced song, but the way they add the keyboards, almost psychedelic guitar work and keep changing tempo it becomes a different almost progressive rock tune in its construction.

Now 'Alien Monolith God' may sound like a Monster Magnet song title but this 14 minute monster has a different method of attraction.
Its slow, brooding and atmospheric for the first half, the second half adds more melodic guitar and keyboards and a few other sound effects, the clean vocals add clarity in the darkness and again their are progressive rock hints.

If symphonic Funeral Doom were a genre then 'Beholding The Unseen Chapter II' would be a prime example of how to do it and if we add the Progressive tag to that list then 'The Sun That Harasses My Solitude' wuld do the same.

What a brilliant album, a clever and original mix of influences that creates a creative bridge between musical genres.

Rating 10/10
For Fans of:Albez Duz, Deprive, Nangilima, Novembers Doom

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

Oppression - Scars 1988-1990 (CD Review)

01.A Majesty, A Joker
02.Alone
03.For No Reason
04.Within Six Walls
05.Punishment From The Gods
06.No Day After
07.Oppression
08.Into The Dark
09.Immortal Objector
10.Parasites


Lare Nieminen (Guitar)
Marco Holstein (Guitar)
Janne Nuotio (Bass)
Harri Luoma (Drums)
Mika Luoma (Vocals)
Santtu Laakso (Vocals on tracks 5-10)

Re-issue of all the demos & 7”EP recorded between ‘88-’90 by the finnish thrash metal band with a technical edge inspired by bands like INFERNÄL MÄJESTY and CORONER.

Well if you want a cd of poor sound quality average, plodding thrash metal, mid paced and sludgey, by a band you have never heard of, then this is the cd for you.

Only good track here is 'Within Six Walls' and thats because some thought appears to have gone into it, from a nice acoustic start to various timing changes creating some intresting sounds and musical variation, otherwise you have to wonder why a record company would even bother with this when there are hundreds of talented bands out there who deserve a chance to get an album to the masses.

Rating 5/10
For fans of: Thrash metal demos

Coffinfish - I Am Providence (CD Review)

01.Zadok Allen
02.The Expedition
03.Watchers
04.Against Life
05.Staring At The Abyss


Czapla (Guitar)
Jasiek (keyboards)
Kolek (Drums)
Lobo (Vocals)
Michal (Bass)
Prymas (Guitar)

From Krakow, The band was formed back in 2011. Since then they have constantly continued evolving, developing a unique style, inspired by tales of weird fiction and the mysteries of the Ocean, Space and the human mind.
Described as a hybrid of post metal/experimental and sludge influenced by the work of H.P.Lovecraft, they released thier first EP in 2013.


Crashing waves and and we are off with 'Zadok Allen' in comes a doom guitar chord and then this most amazing keyboard sound, pure 70's British Prog, what could come next?

'The Expedition' is a different beast, a strange mix of technical metal played slowly at various tempos with numerous different vocal styles, elements of death metal and Progressive rock.

Up next is 'The Watchers' and its 12 minutes long, slow keyboard pulse and looped guitar chords create a gothic rock ambience, then the drums start to pump out this hypnotic rhythm, it starts to get into full swing when the guitar knocks out this proto thrash riff, but they somehow pull it back and bring back that old school keyboard.
Really great vocal starts nice and melodic and then gets more and more agressive as the song progresses, sorry have to mention those keyboards again because there are nice little patterns created in the mix, as this song goes on it at times sounds almost like a death/doom band.

More atmospheric sounds, almost drifting away to somewhere nice then 'Against Life' screamed through the speakers and im back in front of the laptop writing this!

'Staring At The Abyss' another epic 12 minutes, manages to somehow be everything, melody and agression, doom and prog and everything in between, stunning mix, production and musical perfection by some very talented players.

Rating 10/10
For Fans Of: Mastodon, Tool, Stone Circle, Words Of Farewell