Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Schattenkult Produktionen

And the Black Metal Gods (I’m sure there are at least two of them) have smiled upon my sorry ass once again!  I literally jumped for joy when I received this album in the mail and rushed straight home to throw it in my stereo. Long time readers may remember the dripping hard-ons that General Blaspheme and I have for this band. If you don’t and/or my vulgar appreciation for Nebrus is completely new to you, then all you really need to do is listen to just one song and you’ll understand where I’m coming from (and you’ll probably need a new change of underwear as well).

From The Black Ashes starts off strong with “Apocalypse”, a blistering ride through the beginning of the end. They tease you a bit with a break in the bleak with a momentary slow down in tempo that almost feels like everything is going to be okay. Like the world isn’t going to end in this horrible fashion that they’re describing… and suddenly, the sting of reaper’s scythe finds it’s mark on your soul! An awesome way to START your album, if you ask me.

From there, Nebrus just takes your expectations and runs off with them by taking all the vileness of black metal and merging it the finer points of doom metal. It’s like if you took Under The Sign Of The Black Mark and Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, broke them both in half and glued the two halves together to make the greatest mixture of black metal and doom metal that any metal mind ever dreamed of… assuming the breaking/gluing process was successful.

I’m happy to report that Noctuaria’s voice is just as ravaged and raw as ever, which keeps her high on my Favorite Black Metal Vocalist list right between Stefan Fiori and Lord Serpent. This time however, Mortifero duties pertained only to the drums, which are every bit as punishing as they were in Twilight Of Humanity. It’s the same with the guitars. Throughout From The Black Ashes, they are almost always sped up to your standard black metal speed riffs, but occasionally they break off into dreary doom hooks that are always laid in on just the right moments.

But the crowning jewel of From The Black Ashes has to be it’s closing track, “Banquet Of Oblivion”. Hearing Noctuaria scream, “I DON’T EXIST!” would start to weaken even the most galvanized of iron wills. An absolute perfect ending to easily one of the top three albums I’ve heard in 2012. No lie.

Overall: Nebrus, oh my sweet Nebrus… once again, your macabre form of blackened doom has come to lay waste to my other musical tastes. One listen to From The Black Ashes and you’ll get snagged on one of it’s many hooks! Even if black/doom isn’t your forte, you’ll find something about Nebrus’s new offering to enjoy. And if you can, track down one of the 66 copies of Nebrus’s EP, Twilight Of Humanity.

10/10

Nebrus Official
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-  Typhon

Genre: Hardcore, Punk, Grind
Label: Independent 

After submitting my review for Seizure Crypt a couple of days ago, it was suggested that I gave another hardcore band from New York a shot. After a couple of days of letting Expendable Humans sink in, it is crystal clear that I owe my brother-in-metal, Dave, a big ol’ THANK YOU!!! I’m not ashamed to say that Vise Massacre had me won over in a matter of minutes with their hyper aggressive hardcore style and filthy, almost grind percussion tactics!

The overall sound that Vise Massacre spits out is a grimy hardcore masterpiece full of fresh ideas and time tested structures. There are tracks here that are reminiscent of If He Dies… He Dies, Oroku and even a little bit of a sped up Fog Wizard. So it’s safe to say that I had a massive erection forming over the first two tracks of this album.

I mentioned aggression just a few sentences ago and I don’t think that that description alone does the mood that this album conveys any justice whatsoever. Imagine walking through a crowded shopping mall, the day after Thanksgiving. You’re overheated, tired from getting up super early and fed up with all of the idiotic mouth breathers that are usurping your oxygen. An overweight house frau steps on your toe and doesn’t so much as break her waddling stride to apologize for crushing your big toe under her bovine hoof that’s crammed inside a two sizes too small croc.

Getting pissed yet?

Well, now imagine that in your hands, you’re holding two .357 Desert Eagles that never need reloading and all of the doors leading out of the mall have been locked from the outside…

Expendable Humans is the soundtrack pumping out of the P.A. system overhead as you mow down the annoying and tolerable alike.

Aggressive! Psychotic! Hateful! Fucking Perfect! Vise Massacre unlock the homicidal maniac in you through their blend of loud pounding drumwork, hardcore bellowing and grinding riffs. Expendable Humans is a hardcore adventure unlike any other that I have gone on before and couldn’t wait to take it again as soon as the album was finished. And I did. Over and over again. Once while I was strolling though the mall even…

Overall: When all is said and done, a recommendation  to listen to this album couldn’t be glowing enough from me. This is easily an album that I could listen to for days on end, tell a friend about it and listen to it with him/her for more days on end! Vise Massacre may prove that humans are expendable, but they themselves are invaluable to the metal/hardcore community!

10/10

-  Typhon

Vise Massacre On ReverbNation
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Genre: Progressive
Label: The End Records 

While doing my research in preparation of this review, I noticed that this album seems to catch a lot of shit. And I don’t mean that like, the odd old school Opeth fanboy just blasts it for no good reason either. I’m talking about pages long arguments as to why Damnation is Opeth’s worst album. I mean, these things look like they were written by Ivy League professors. I have to ask, “why”? Why the extreme hatred? Why the surprised reaction? Wasn’t Opeth kind of building towards something like this?

Thing is, I can kind of see why so many felt betrayed. Even if you noticed that they were heading in this particular direction, even if momentarily, it’d still end up being a kind of shock to the system. It’s actually pretty crazy if you think about it; Not a single song on this album is trying to be anything except for progressive rock. Nothing even remotely extreme. Yeah, I can see how some felt alienated by this change. Lucky for me, I have little to no expectation for these albums since I’m fairly new to the whole Opeth deal. And in my opinion, Damnation is my favorite re-issue of the three.

Everything about this album is dead center on the Perfect Progressive Album bull’s eye! Mikael’s voice is right were it needs to be, when it needs to be there. He doesn’t have the best voice in the world, but it’s exactly what is called for here and now and in this album. His progressive structure throughout Damnation is occupying Floydian Genius territory! Yeah, there’s a HUGE Pink Floyd influence hanging around here too. You can really hear it in the misty and almost purely atmospheric tones and chillin’ out tempos that populate this album. It should also be said that the incorporation of a grand piano and the creative, ivory ticklin’ manstermind, Steven Wilson is a perfect addition to this line-up of already top-notch musicians in this delicious prog pie.

I also love how even though, not every musician gets a huge slice of said pie (time wise), nobody seems to be underplayed or underused. It’s like I said earlier, where they need to be and when they need to be there. It applies to everything about this album. Not a single note feels like it could of been longer or possibly cut short. None of the lyrics feel forced or even slightly hacked. There’s a perfect balance between vocals to instrumental ratio so that it won’t harsh your mellow (maybe that’s speculation…). There’s not a damn thing that I could say about this album that’s even remotely negative.

Overall: Hate it as an Opeth album or love it as a monumental step in creative direction, either way you have to give it up to Damnation for being a juggernaut of a progressive rock album. I’m even willing to go as far as to say that this album earns a spot towards the very peak of my Best Progressive Albums EVAH! List! And thank you The End for exposing me to this whole Opethian affair.

10/10

Opeth Official
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Opeth On ReverbNation 

Genre: Heavy, Power Metal
Label: Killer Metal Records

It has been quite a while since I’ve received something even remotely close to heavy metal or power metal. Iowa’s metal maestros Unity manage to cram the two aforementioned genres together with a wee bit of a progressive sound thrown in for a taste of fucking awesome!

Within the first two tracks you can tell that these guys really like their Iron Maiden. The third track erases any doubt of that completely and then raises the flag for fans of Gamma Ray! I’m tingly all over! Especially when a wicked solo erupts out of nowhere and melts your face clean of the bone (a la Raiders Of The Lost Ark). Following your facial reconstruction, vocalist Alonso “Zo” Donoso finishes off what’s left with a voice so perfect for what Unity is doing here. Power vocals that may as well be the voice of God since when Zo sings, everyone listens. Not necessarily because they want to, but because they are compelled to.

Even the obligatory power metal ballad doesn’t suck! Do you have any idea how fucking rare it is to come across a band that decides to write and record a ballad that isn’t cheesy, oversimplified or just plain horrible? Blue Moon rare! Honestly, I don’t know if I can make this any clearer to everyone. Unity is amazing, plain and simple. Check them out if you’re new school, old school or anything between or beyond.

Overall: Seriously, if you’re a fan of European heavy/power metal and wish that there was an American band could sound just as good, look no further. You’ve found them! True American Metal is REBORN!!!

10/10

Unity Official
Unity On ReverbNation
Unity On Facebook  

Genre: Progressive, Psychedelic, Acid Rock
Label: Independent 

Man, having a baby really fucks up your schedule! I’ve been sitting on this review for so long, that Masonic Weird has changed their name to Martyred Whitmans since asking me to review their demo, Manic And Self Medicated! Apologies all around.

As soon as this demo started up, I was reminded of a band that I review waaaaaay back with E-Metal Reviews called To The Bones. I went a little overboard with praise on that review since it was my first real experience with the progressive/psychedelic sub-genres and to this day, it still creates a massive erection in my trousers whenever I’m allowed to review anything from said genres. And now that you can’t unknow that, I’m please to say that Masonic Weird’s demo is a “boner”-fied piece of doom-y progression! If you’re not familiar with To The Bones, then maybe the comparison of The Sword (sans the poser tag) meets Earth might raise an eyebrow or two (I know it did for me as I wrote that).

Now, I’ve read some reviews about this band in the past that didn’t paint them in the best of lights, so I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t really looking forward to it… how quickly we remember not to believe everything we hear/read/see on T.V.! Seriously, I’d like to know who those guys were listening to when they wrote those reviews? Because I’m positive that it wasn’t Masonic Weird! There’s nothing “hipster” about this music! Sure, pot helps… it helps with EVERYTHING! And who the fuck isn’t gonna toke up when they’re listening to doom or prog?!

Braking down the instrumentation, the riffing is exceptional! You’re not really sure where you’re going to be lead next, but that don’t matter since it’s constantly exciting more than what you were expecting. The bass in Manic And Self Medicated is perfect. Perfect. The mixture or doom and progressive styles pretty much just left the bass roam free. The freest I’ve ever heard a bass be, in fact. In my opinion, this is some of the best use of bass I’ve ever heard! (Kudos to Yehuda McKay) Drums? Yeah, they’re there and awesome. But, prog drums are always awesome, so I’m glad to see that the trend continues here. The only other thing that feels standard are the vocals. They aren’t anything ground breaking, but I wasn’t looking for groundbreaking so it all works out fine there.

There’s not much to say about this demo that I haven’t already touched on or that you couldn’t already gather. It came completely out of left field and rocked my socks off. But if you really want me to gripe about something, I’ll give you this: I was expecting something a bit more “weird”. But that’s not an official gripe.

Overall: Every riff is a combination of thick and catchy. Every lyric is dripping with THC and acid. Every bash of the brass is one that will stay with you after the demo stops playing.   Everything about this offering is genius! Plain and simple. If you like bands that stick to their guns and play shit that isn’t exactly what people think that it should be, then Masonic Weird/Martyred Whitmans is just for you!

10/10

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