Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Alt-Rock, Industrial, Gothic
Label: Independent

This is a review being done as a special request. A Portland, Oregon based act called After Nothings End. It’s not something I’d normally review, but what the hell. I’m bored and was looking for something new to listen to anyway.

Immediately I’m annoyed with the vocalist’s choice of style. He’s got a decent clean set when he uses it, as well as a serviceable scream. But he opts to use this late nineties era whisper-sing-whine with distortion that just drags the whole damn thing down. Especially since he’s the highest thing in the mix…

Instrumentally, After Nothings End is a strong blend of Gothic synths and straight hard rockin’ string slingin’! Kind of what you hear in your head when someone reminds you that you used to listen to The Cure and Spineshank in the same breath. There is an industrial tinge to this album, but it’s not played up enough if you ask me. The song Complications Of The Mind (about eight tracks in, out of thirteen) is where Beyond The Broken Path hits it’s stride. Everything comes together in an explosion of gnarly solos, killer bass lines and an above the norm thus far vocal effort. I should probably point out the drummer is a madman as well! Crazy beats flood this album from beginning to end and stand out above the rest like a towering… tower of… towerness… made of drums.

Overall: Lose about ninety percent of the distortion and change the vocal style to something a bit more along the lines of straight-up hardcore screaming with clean breaks and you and I might have something going here Beyond The Broken Path…

7/10

Beyond The Broken Path’s Official

Genre: Death Metal, Grindcore
Label: Dynamic Art Records

Grindcore is a horrible bitch-goddess that demands too much for the part-time metal fan, hence the limited fan base. Bands like Total Fucking Destruction, Insect Warfare and Righteous Pigs might have overwhelmed and then promptly exploded the skull of a kid who wished to make the jump from listening to the likes of Job For A Cowboy or At The Gates to something with a bit more substance. But now, there’s a new gateway grind band that doesn’t rhyme with “Day-palm Beth.” (But to be fair, Deathbound wasn’t always a grindcore band. Earlier albums had more of a straight-up death metal flavor to them.) Doomsday Comfort houses a hardened mixture of ‘core-ish vocals, barbaric grind riffs and neck wrecking drumage, fit to slate the bloodlust of most grizzled grind fanatics, yet inviting enough to attract a newer audience. This album fits in my “Universal Grind Album” bracket alongside “Reek Of Putrefaction” and “From Enslavement To Obliteration”. It even maintains the average two minutes and some odd seconds or shorter, track length standard for those of you who give a shit about that sort of thing.

Overall: Grindcore for the eager ears of newbies to the unapologetic genre that holds enough brutality and hyperactivity to keep the old schools happy as well. A perfect balance.

7/10

Deathbound On MySpace

Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Napalm Records

I have to admit, I was a little bummed to find out that this wasn’t an album by the German thrash bastards of the same name… but hey, it’s been a while since I reviewed some blackened death metal, so I’m kind of excited all the same! Buzz is, these guys are kind of geared towards pleasing the Dimmu Borgir crowd… well, we’ll see how that goes…

After about six seconds of listening to The Return Of The Witch, I think everybody has the same reaction to Necronomicon this time around, “Wow… these guys really like Behemoth… a lot!” Rob “The Witch” Trembly’s (um… shouldn’t that be “The Warlock” or “The Wizard”?) vocals match up to Nergal’s fairly well, so no new surprises there. The drumming consists mostly of double bass and short burst blast beats that throw in for your speedy blackened thrash/death vote. Songs like The Awakening have a chanting background chorus that adds that little bit of a gothic pitch that keeps things relatively interesting as the album progresses. And momentum rest stop Lilith adds a pleasant respite of rhythmic ticking to ease the jangled nerves. A nice touch, I must say.

Overall: Honestly, Necronomicon is pretty much just going to be “another Behemoth clone” to a lot of you out there. However, I feel that as far as Behemoth worship goes, this is the most fun. The Return Of The Witch is fast, furious and full of feral fucktittude, putting it ahead of a lot of blackened death metal bands out there.

7/10

Necronomicon On MySpace

Genre: Doom, Drone
Label: Conspiracy Records

A band name never fit so well with the music they produce. After listening to Ausserwelt for about ten minutes, I felt like I was trapped in a pitch black sub basement of some abandoned saw mill for at least a year. Needless to say with my state of depression brought on by Year Of No Light, I didn’t actually want to finish listening to Ausserwelt.

The next day, I gave Ausserwelt another shot. And yet again, it brought me down with it’s heavy droning doom. I guess it goes without saying that this is one powerful piece of metal! I know that music in most if it’s forms can affect the people who listen to it, but Year Of No Light must of discovered some sort of top-secret endorphin draining frequency or something.

As for my actual feelings towards the album go, I’m a bit mixed. Yes, it’s as I said, powerful. And I’m no stranger to droning, depressing doom (thought it isn‘t one of my favorite genres). But there’s something about Ausserwelt that’s just a little… off. And not like a “trendy” or “ultra protools” off. More like an, “I’ve heard this before almost exactly but I couldn’t tell you where from” sort of way. Ausserwelt isn’t bad by any means, it’s just a little reminiscent/familiar for the wrong reasons. For me at least.

Overall: Year Of No Light built a flip switch in your emotional core, called it Ausserwelt and decided to dick with it until you need to come back to it like a drug crazy homeless person, scrambling to score another hit of depressing droningness. Just don’t expect anything ground breaking and you’ll do just fine.

7/10

Year Of No Light On MySpace

Genre: Metalcore, Thrash
Label: Independent

Hailing from Slamcouver, Moshington and touting a thirteen year tenure as the resident bad boys of the Pacific Northwest‘s metal scene, Tallboy Shotgun presents Killers, Kings & Fools! Boasting heavy hitting list of influences: Metallica, Pantera, Slipknot, Machine Head, Testament, etc…, Tallboy Shotgun have thirst for blood and a lust for everything heavy!

Ok, I may have overdone it a bit in that intro since out of those influences, Pantera is the only one that really stands out. Maybe a smidgen of Machine Head as well, but that’s debatable. But don’t dismiss them as yet another cookie cutter Panteracore band. They’ve got some chops all of their own. Vocalist Jon Kindsvogel does a decent Anselmo roar impersonation as well as offering a twist on the melodic vocals the pop up every once in a while. Lone guitarist Adam Smith digs in with heavy grooves and (surprisingly) only one or two Dimebaggy solos. The rest are much more intricate than that! (Cool, right?) And then we come to drummer Austin Smith… now imagine if you will, a perpetual motion machine that’s powered by a nuclear explosion and is modified to play a drum kit…

Songs like Agent Of Destruction have an aggressive bounce ‘n’ groove to them that’s appealing on a strictly headbangin’ basis. While songs like Hook And Hanger are more for the melodic toned bunches out there. Either way, this little piece of heaviness will have it’s fans.

Overall: This album is going to have it’s hardcore fans and equally hardcore haters. I’m somewhere in the middle, kind of leaning towards the positive. Killers, Kings & Fools hits most of the right spots when it comes to full blown entertainment, but falters in the area of originality. It’s more or less a good way to kill forty minutes or when you’re driving to, then back from the liquor store.

7/10

Tallboy Shotgun On MySpace