Genre

2019 Albums

Album Review: Advent Sorrow – Kali Yuga Crown 8.5 (DSBM)

July 10, 2019 zaxrecordreviews

Advent Sorrow are an Australian black metal band that have been going at it since 2009 to moderate amounts of acclaim. They’ve come back this year with their new album titled “Kali Yuga Crown”.

To get more specific they operate out of the niche genre depressive suicidal black metal, or DSBM for short. It’s not a genre I’ve ever been all that into, but granted it is, as I said, very niche – so not a lot of music comes out of it, and the music that does come out of it rarely makes it’s way to the ears of the uninitiated. That being said, this album is a very good gateway into the genre. It incorporates elements of other genres and sub-genres such as atmospheric black metal, 1st wave black metal, and doom. The atmospheric moments come in the form of occasional keyboard flourishes and melodic guitar riffs, these influences are most present on the closing track “Death In Magic Antagonism.” The doom influences can be found on the track “Caesar” which employs these very slow, sludgy riffs. Then on tracks like “Spearhead” and “Wolf & Weapon” you can see more classic and traditional black metal song structure, especially in the drums. It’s like a black metal layer cake. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Horrisonous – A Culinary Cacophony 9 (Death Metal)

July 3, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

This is how I like my death metal, with a healthy dose of Aussie doom. It’s becoming that kind of place, the kind of country that needs doom to seep through the cracks in the bleach white wall of the Starbucks joined to an Apple store. There’s plenty of pent up rage on this island just waiting for the chance to crush the ‘surface’. This is raw, heavy and real. This is probably one of the filthiest death releases this year. For fans of death like The Chasm and Autopsy and death doom like Swallow The Sun. The balance is really good here, leaning into death heavily. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Archivist – Triumvirate 10 (Post Metal)

June 29, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

The raw emotion and peaks from the debut LP returns here in a big way, the goosebumps are back. The third and most recent album from Archivist offers a continuation of a running story, what appears to be a story of macro transformation. Look at the artwork (all by Alex CF) and you can see the transition from human, to machine and now to some kind of cosmic being no longer resembling a humanoid at all. The lyrical themes have followed the same transition, from emotional struggle of humanity, to the mechanical malady and now finally the emotional weight of the cosmos and confronting god. Perhaps a man made god, a literal and physical manifestation of the idea made real through circuits and programming. As always these are my own ignorant interpretations based on no research, something I like to do as an exercise. […]

Carcassbomb's Reviews

Album Review: Archivist – Construct 8.9 (Post Metal)

June 29, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Immediately I’m hearing some differences from their debut LP. Namely the posthardcore direction I mentioned seems intensified with Construct. Certainly not a bad thing but the faster more chaotic opening didn’t quite have the effect of the delicate creeping opener on their self-titled LP. The cleans also come in much earlier and often. As the album progresses I get a sense of the hardcore side of things being upped a bit which I am all for. There’s less of the black vibe and more of the heart-wrenching cracking voice you expect from Birds In Row. When the death vocals come they tend to be used to accentuate the heavier moments by intensifying the deeper vocal range closer to GOOD metalcore/mathcore than black metal. I feel they are a lot heavier now. […]

Carcassbomb's Reviews

Album Review: Archivist – Archivist 10 (Post Metal)

June 29, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

It started so quiet and gave me little idea and yet I felt oddly emotionally attached to the artwork during this time, which intensified as the calm guitar came in. Still not giving anything away. Then the first punch of the record… the vocals, I love these vocals. It reminds me so much of early hardcore/mathcore like Botch in a lot of ways, it’s not a typical death/black vocal. It emotes more and takes his time with each lyric – Something else I’ll have to discuss because there’s some depth to the words. Currently I’m reading The Southern Reach Trilogy (First one, Annihilation, became a lesser film), so these science fiction themes tied to dramatic events and emotions really resonates at the moment. The consideration of the ideas and then the execution, there’s a lot of levity here. This will serve as suitable preparation for their newest release. […]

Carcassbomb's Reviews

Album Review: Dr. Colossus – “The Dank” 9/10 (Stoner Doom)

June 26, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

I’m glad that after a year of this I’m still getting super excited by new discoveries, this year has been filled with conceptual albums and high art themes. Lovecraft, mental illness and Dark Souls. Now for something entirely different tasting, Simpson metal presented with the levity of something serious and from Australia of all places. These guys are committed to the image with full Stonecutters costume for live shows and promotional shots. Paired with a dark and groovy stoner doom/hard rock sound, it feels complete and fleshed out – not gimmicky. They have newer stuff out in 2019 as well. […]

Carcassbomb's Reviews

Album Review: Hela – Death May Die 9.2 (Doom Metal)

June 12, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

A far darker opening than I was expecting. Apparently the opener track is based on the story “The nameless city” by Lovecraft (read). The song titles alone say to me that this is a chronological story starting with a horrible discovery, The Gateway. There’s some kind of mythical figure and perhaps the revelation of evil, Mothers Of Monsters and Touched By Evil. Then that touch of evil infests or takes hold in the form of the Dark Passenger – possibly analogous of mental illness or possession. This passenger causes chaos and unnatural acts, resulting in Repulsion – of self and externally. The Gateway inevitable leads to Bodies Burning In Hell – The end destruction, death or suicide from madness and hell because of the corruption. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Full Of Hell – Weeping Choir 8.8 (Grindcore)

June 11, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

I’m developing a fondness for this balls deep heavy kind of sound. Since hearing their previous release I’ve explored more of what the Grind tag has to offer, from the classics recommended to me by the community to the newer bands like Iron Eagle and Ampallang Infection. I’m definitely getting a feel for it now but still have a way to go. What I am finding is that across all the grind styles are some pretty wild decisions made about album composition and song presentation. It’s like extreme metal wasn’t cutting it so people have tried to condense it’s heaviness into the smallest frame possible. To be the loudest the fastest without ever compromising brutality… well, they do comprise a little on this record and it’s quite eloquent when it happens. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Everest Queen – “Dead Eden” 8.7/10 (Death Doom)

June 10, 2019 Melinda (Carcassbomb)

Dead Eden is a stoner tinged death doom album. There’s also a healthy dose of Neurosis and Melvins inspiration that gives it an overall vibe resembling a combination of Conan and Isis. It rumbles when it’s heavy and it’s fanciful when it spreads out, never losing traction in between. It was released in April and the band still have a pretty small following, this should definitely change asap, some solid stuff here. The UK produces the world’s most trustworthy doom. […]