Carnalation - Ghosts (CD Review)

01.Drown In Silver
02.Against The Burning Sky
03.Prometheus
04.Passengers
05.Death And Rust


Jonne Soidinaho (Vocals)
Arttu Hakanen (Guitar)
Rami Rissa (Drums)
Anssi Rissa (Guitar)
Niko Mäenpää (Bass)

Carnalation was formed in 2008 at Provinssirock in Seinäjoki. It was clear from the start that the band wanted to make music that is straightforward and as brutal as possible. The self-titled first demo was recorded in the beginning of 2009.

“Doomsday Diaries”, an EP was recorded during May-June 2010, It combined elements from both grind core and death metal.

Over the summer 2011 they toured Finland and later headed out to Soundwall studio and recorded their debut album “Deathmask” with producer Peter Tägtgren (Pain/Hypocrisy). “Deathmask”.

The genre listed for this Ep is 'Alternative Death Metal', but what we get is five well executed tracks of technical Death Metal, does what you would expect, solid frantic drum driven agressive songs, gruff vocals, furious guitar solos etc.

Rating 6/10
For Fans Of: Primordium, Emeth, Kevlar Skin

Schlaasss - Slaasssch (CD Review)

01.Zéro
02.Selfie
03.La Bagarre
04.Salope
05.Crève
06.Interlude Tapin
07.Pin Pon
08.La Love
09.Paris Satan
10.Kilimandjaro
11.Interlude Minouche
12.I Want To Be With You
13.Onani
14.Interlude Tigidiyayé
15.Hippie
16.Miaou
17.Anvers



Charlie Dirty Duran (Vocals)
Daddy Schwartz (Vocals)
Le Dix (Beats/Mix)
Bonetrips (Mix)

One year after having subjected its public thanks to "Tapin Volvo", an EP with tracks as wild as the catchy title, the duo from Saint-Etienne lauches its first burning album: SLAASSSCH.

Fully recorded by Schlaasss with Le Dix aux intrus, SLAASSSCH is the achievement of a process as audio as visual that comes after about sixty concerts everywhere in France. With rough lyrics and a catchy beat, the first album of Schlaasss attracts with its 14 songs out of all music category which will blow away people who take things at face value and will delight the reckless ones. A detonation mixture for a duo that can count on many great fans. It is therefore thanks to them that SLAASSSCH has been released, after a successful crowdfunding campaign. However, Schlaasss does not confine itself to express problems with music: the visual appearance is also viral. All the titles of the album will have a video clip and the stage performances will be as fractious as passionate.

Composed of Charlie Dirty Duran (aka La Bigleuse, the one who squints) and Daddy Schwartz (aka Le Grand Maigre, the tall skinny guy), Schlaasss continues to play on paradox and disrespect through a loud music that use the senseless for serious subjects.

Two micros, some fury and kisses, fluffs and blood: this is cathartic.

A quirky mix of electro funk, pop and electronica, delivered in a fun style, with all songs sung in French i am not sure how this would break out of their home country.

This style of electro rap has a punky element to it, much in the style of Atari Teenage Riot, While other songs are more laid back and commercial, there are Industrial elements as well, all in all making a refreshing change from the usual manifactured pop crap we get forced fed here in the UK.



Rating 7/10
For fans of: Atari Teenage Riot, Lolita Storm, Sonic Subjunkies, Gangstar Toons Industry

Angakok - Angakok (CD Review)

01.Perpaluktok Aitut
02.Sacrifice
03.Collapsing
04.Aksarpok
05.Samsara
06.Avioyok
07.Dead Birds
08.Trust My Scorn
09.Empty Cup
10.Sivudlit Nertorpok


Ben (Vocals/Guitar)
Baston (Guitar/Samples)
Run (Drums)

From Belgium, Angakok are a minimalistic, loud and chaotic trio merging doom, sludge and drone influences. A first track, "Porsinauleq", is issued on R.A.I.G.'s compilation "Dirgenera Compendium II". After opening shows in their hometown for bands such as Altar Of Plagues, Monarch or Sofy Major, they released a 3 tracks demo recorded by Jeremy Stoz (Mammouth Machine) at the Pole Image studio. As result of this ep. they gets on the road for a new series of shows, festivals and contests such as the Concourt-Circuit while working on some new compositions. The result of this work is Angakok, the band's first album, recorded at the Noise Factory Studio by Gerald Jans.

'Perpaluktok Aitut' is the weirdly titled first song, i say song its more of what sounds like a Native American speaking over some distortion guitar.

More traditional sludge/doom to listen to with 'Sacrifice' thoughtowards the end gets a bit more frantic.

Next we are 'Collapsing' with some slow and painful guitar chords, howevr as this progresses they throw in some speech samples from a news report (?) and the music gets a little heavier.

More weirdness with 'Aksarpok' and more speech samples over a riff this time, this is followed by 12 minutes of 'Samsara' more doom/sludge, until 5 minutes in and it gets very quiet with some simple guitar picking out a few notes, after briefly returning to the sludge and then it sort of mixes everything up towards the end.

'Avioyok' is abot one minute of sound effects, followed by 'Dead Birds' which is 90 seconds of sludge/avant-garde noise akin to the Melvins.

'Trust My Scorn'starts agin with that Native American speaking and then flows into another dark and painfull workout.

After 'Empty Cup' which is more of the same we end on 'Sivudlit Nertorpok' a very quiet atmospheric piece.

Rating 9/10
For Fans of: Melvins, Sunn o))), Earth, Blut Aus Nord

Dryom - 2 (CD Review)

01.Mertvyj Gorod
02.Risunok
03.Metel’
04.Ona

Musicians Unknown

The second work of the mysterious Russian project, which is actually the first full-length album following demo “(1)” which was officially issued three years earlier. “2” features a balanced approach to the sound level which significantly improved compared to the debut demo, while music-wise DRYOM remains dedicated to funeral doom metal with a unique atmosphere of gloomy dead landscapes of abandoned cities and vast twilight spaces of the dead nature. The unique features are brought by employment of jew’s harp and flute, which add a light taste of ethnic music translated through the aesthetics of the funeral metal.


The first of 4 huge workouts is the 13 minute 'Mertvyj Gorod', stunning beautiful guitar playing and a very dark funeral vocal, half way through the jew harp makes an appearence and i have to say it is very hypnotic, works so well and something few if any other band has used in this genre of music, as the song progresses the guitar gets more agressive and more layers are created with keyboards.

'Risunok' is 15 minutes long, that jews harp is once again put to great use, its sounds so strange to be making a big point about this simple instrument, but it just makes this music soar to a new height, the only slight issue i have with this is the Flute, it seems out of tune with the rest of the music.

At just over 10 minutes 'Metel’ is the "short" one, nice keyboard running through the whole piece and some near (slow) thrash riffs as well.

Finally a 17 minute monster called 'Ona', follows the same composition as previous tracks, except for the quiet breakdown around 8 minutes which is simple yet atmospheric guitar playing.Eventually this is brought to a torturous end with distortion and that jews harp.


Rating 10/10
For fans of: Sunn o))), Earth, Norse, Ulver, Wolveserpent, Boris, Sigh

My Reflection - Dead Musician (Single Review)

01.Dead Musician

Jenni Räikkönen (vocals)
Petja Haapaniemi (Guitar/Vocals)
Henri Vuorenmaa (Guitar)
Aki Tainio (Bass)
Petri Inkinen (Drums)

Melodic rock/metal band from finland return with a new album, this is the first song released as a "teaser".

Starts off with a copy of 'House Of The Rising Sun' played on a music box, then the music comes in, standard symphonic rock fare and you know the vocal line still has that "Rising Sun'" melody.
Some nice guitar playing helps create a folkish feel as it goes along, but overall its pretty average stuff.

5/10
For Fans Of: Evanessence, Nightwish

Fist City - Everything Is A Mess (2015)

01.Intro
02.Fuck Cops
03.Let's Rip
04.Hey Little Sister
05.Bad Trip
06.Interlude I
07.Shotgun
08.Surf's Up
09.Interlude II
10.Interlude III
11.Rats
12.The Smell
13.End Of The Good Times
14.Losers Never Die
15.Interlude IV
16.The Mess
17.Interlude V

Kier Griffiths (Vocals/Guitar)
Brittany Griffiths (Bass)
Evan Van Reekum (Guitar)
Ryan Grieve (Drums)

Supercharged Southern Alberta quartet Fist City burst from basement studios onto the stage in 2009. The twin sibling duo of Kier and Brittany Griffiths — musical collaborators from the womb to the tomb — found ideal foils in frenetic guitarist/songwriter Evan Van Reekum and powerhouse drummer Ryan Grieve. A solid string of releases from labels such as L.A.’s Dead Beat, Victoria’s La Ti Da, and Transgressive have been coupled with tours at home and abroad, glowing reviews, recording with Don Pyle, a Nardwuar interview, and other thrills.

2014 marked a transitional year, including personal changes among the band members, the reissue of their debut LP It’s 1983,Grow Up! from Transgressive Records (originally issued by L.A.’s Black Tent Press in 2012) and the recording of Fist City’s sophomore salvo Everything Is A Mess. The new album finds them primed to take the future by storm and was recorded at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago.


If you take out the intro and interludes, all of which are just very short instrumentals you are left with 11 songs.
These songs are simle, short, almost post grunge pop rock numbers, delivered mainly in the style of say the Pixies.

The sixties influenced (Mainly) instrumentals songs like 'Surfs Up' and 'Rats' are reminiscent of Greg Sage, and have a slightly punky vocal.

Honestly can't think of much to say here, it's a listenable album, nothing to get too excited about.

Rating 7/10
For Fans Of: Greg Sage & Wipers, Pixies, Buzzcocks

Wasted Puppets - Puppet Show (CD Review)

01.My Sweetest Poison
02.Lousianna's Son
03.Lovestruck
04.Just Disapppear
05.Black Tar Medicine
06.Brothers
07.Your Mother Knew I Was Bad News
08.Don't Save Me
09.Outlaw Story


Anssi Tuomikoski (Vocals/Harmonica)
Jani Klemetti (Guitar)
Samuli Visuri (Bass)
Mikko "Hyrski" Hyyryläinen (Drums)

Wasted Puppets is a rock group formed in 2011 from Lapland playing music based upon the foundation which was built by such heroes as Zeppelin, Hendrix, Purple, G N' R, Kiss, Whitesnake and many others that came after them, with their own twist.

Fairly straight forward classic rock stuff here, nothing to get over excited about, more of a small club band than one that would ever get near a stadium.

Its melodic and well played, would suit a drive radio playlist, so to pick a couple out i will go with 'Black Tar Medicine' a slow and anthemic song with huge riffs and a good vocal performance, this one has that Audioslave vibe.

Another stand out is 'Your Mother Knew I Was Bad News', its got that American post glam swagger of G'N'R with some rock n roll thrown in as well.

As i said this is an okay album, just dont expect it to leap out at you.

Rating 7/10
For fans of: King Lizard, Mercy House, Wasted Sinners, Bad Son