Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Death Metal, Grind

Label: Comatose Music

Modus Delicti started up after the band Nobody broke up in 2005. In 2006, they broke up again and reformed within the same year… yeah. After hearing that, I wasn’t expecting a whole hell of a lot from this band either. But the test of their mantel is in their metal, not in their tumultuous history. After giving Nobody a spin, I have this to say:

If you like spastic grind in the vein of Kill The Client and more groove heavy death metal by way of Skinless, then this six year veteran of the Italian metal circuit and their first full length album are right up your awesome choice of alley!

I don’t really need to say a whole lot more than that for this review. Modus Delicti plays some fairly technical, yet eerily relaxed grindcore that’s akin to countrymen Tsubo’s style. The guitar buzzes through riff after bloody violent riff and even slows down for a little melodic break in Beyond The Mask. Claude De Rosa, Modus Delicti’s drummer, is a killer. Plain and simple. ADHD pummeling and controlled, technical blasts move this band out of the shadows of mediocre grind and into “keep your eyes and these guys” territory.

The vocals aren’t terrible most of the time.  But every once in a while, there’s that irritating Cookie Monster growl that pops up and ruins the flow of an already brutal song. And as for flow breakage, at the end of The Teeth Collector, there’s about thirty seconds of silence that just annoys this piss out of me. Why the hell is that even there?

Overall: Modus Delicti’s debut album, Nobody is about twenty four minutes of a brutal groove ‘n’ grind fest!

8/10

Modus Delicti On Facebook

Modus Delicti On MySpace

Genre: Brutal Death Metal, Grindcore

Label: Earache Records

Based on the name (one of the most badass weapons in first person shooter history), I’m guessing that Brain Drill broke up (again), reformed and sort of renamed themselves.

:: Actually listens to Maniacal Miscreation:: Ok, so it’s DEFINITELY not Brain Drill, thank the maker. Cerebral Bore has been kicking around the U.K. for about six years, releasing two demos and a single, shredding riffs and faces while busting heads and grooves wherever they may roam. But finally, someone took notice and signed these brutal death metalers. And now, we have Maniacal Miscreation! Eight tracks of broken glass, gasoline and razorwire! A glowing review MUST be imminent…

But first, this gripe:

Man, these are some pretty average vocals. I mean, they’re almost so run-of-the-mill that it becomes painful. You know the kind I’m going on about, don’t you: growl, squeal, grunt, repeat… wait, what? IT’S A CHICK? Well that changes… absolutely nothing! (That’s equality for you.) What they are is what they are and that’s all there is to it. A set of ovaries isn’t going to change that.

Now that that little piece of FUCK YOU to the promo writers is complete, we can carry on to the meat of this album: everything else! I know that the word “brutal” is thrown around a ton nowadays. But my friends, believe me when I say that this band completely replaces Webster’s Dictionary’s definition of the word! Fuck! The word altogether is now useless! Brutal Death Metal shall now be known as Cerebral Bore Death Metal. Now, when someone gets a savage pummeling you must say that they were, “Cerebral Borely beaten”. In Mortal Kombat 3, now you must enter a code to finish your opponent with a Cerebral Boreality. Etc…

Stepping back and taking a listen to the instrumentation is almost destructive since everything blends together to make this firestorm of an album come together so seamlessly. But if I must, then I must. The riffs in this album are concussive! Every chord is a broken rib, played, mended and then re-broke! Bass-wise, I have to say that I stoaked to even hear the fucking thing, let alone be astounded that a fast played death metal bass can sound so damn great! The drums are technical, violent and far too fast for anyone who may want to emulate them later. They’re probably my favorite ANYTHING attached to this album.

Overall: Yes, yes. The vocals are serviceable. But the rest of the band is what you want to focus on here. It’s polished to a blinding shine, technical grind for those of you who like newer Napalm Death, The Berzerker and the first Whitechapel album.

8/10

Cerebral Bore On Facebook

Genre: Dark Ambient, Experimental
Label: Malignant Records

I was wondering how long it would take before I’d run into something from Malignant Records that didn’t do much for me. Ok, that isn’t quite true or fair. Wolfskin (featuring Last Industrial Estate) does a terrific job at creating depressing noises and setting up a more than enjoyable ambience for the listener to, say, study trigonometry or fall asleep to. But as for just plain sitting and stoning out to, I’m not all that sure.

Album opener Arrival, is a strong enough track to lead off with, with it’s slow to start build and powerful wind-ish effect. I find it to be reminiscent of standing in an arid plain where a sandstorm buffering you from every direction for hours on end. And then we transition into track two of five, Metaphysical. Now, with a title like that, I figured that this was going to be an eight minute journey of self-exploration, or maybe something a little less intense like a slow waltz on my own gray matter. Turns out, we’re supposed to be content with a continued variation of Arrival. Ok… that’s fine I guess. Just don’t let it carry over into track three, Stonegates Of Silence.

…you got lucky. Track three juts out from the grown like a seventy story tall monolith, casting a menacing shadow over the rest of the tracks on this album. Both figuratively, with it’s pulsing blasts of intensity and ringing of what I can only imagine was a bell the size of a small planet and literally by clocking in at fifteen minutes and twenty-four seconds long! I can honestly say that this is the best of the five.

The last two tracks end up being a bit of a wash for me. The feel like wasted effort on the artists part and sounded like something I’ve heard before in previous submissions. But to be fair, if I heard Stonegates Of Silence before those other releases, then the score may have been a little high. I guess this was just the luck of the draw.

Overall: Honestly, this album’s only crime was being listened to after the likes of Derelict World and Astral Unity. Otherwise, I say that this is another solid album from the Bastion of the Bleak, Malignant Records.

8/10

Wolfskin On MySpace

Genre: Death/Black Metal

Label: Abyss Records

Fester! Norwegian old school death metal! I was excited when I saw the email containing this gem in my inbox. I LOVE obscure, putrid old school death metal, and the bands from the old Norwegian scene are among my favorites. Old Funeral, Thou Shalt Suffer, Amputation, Molestation, Cadaver, and of course FESTER! Their first album “Winter of Sin” which was reissued last year by Abyss Records, is one of my favorite death metal albums. It is because of that career defining album that Fester are associated with death metal.

It only makes sense that Abyss would next reissue Fester second and last album, Silence. Contrastingly, Silence is not a death metal record. Not at all. Literally the only shared trait between these norsemen’s debut and sophmore epitaph is the shrieking vocal style.

If it’s not death metal, what is it? Is this a forgotten Norwegian black metal record ala Burzum and Mayhem? I don’t know what to call this, actually. It’s melodic and very black metal influenced (not surprising, they are from Norway). It’s full of clean guitar and catchy melodies, for fuck’s sake! To put things in perspective, there are guitar leads on this album that would not be out of place on a Van Halen album.

I’m not sure what this can be compared to; the closest acts I can think of are a couple of underground black metal bands called Atavysm and Bitterfrost. If I had to put it in a genre, I would call it melodic or maybe even progressive black metal. Positive black metal, if I may have creative license. The songs are filled with a kind of emotional warmth I often get from Agalloch.

If you’re still not convinced of the oddball nature of this album, let me offer one final proof: this album is happy. By that I mean it’s very upbeat and optimistic. It has a generally uplifting mood, and makes me feel, well uh, good. Even the aforementioned black metal shrieks sound nearly euphoric in conjunction with the nostalgic, triumphant riffing.

Not that it doesn’t have ferocious sections and pounding drums, but it completely lacks the ferocity of Marduk, the melancholy of Burzum, or the regal evil of Dissection. Silence is a mellow ride over snowcapped mountains, on the back of your pet dragon, at sunrise.

Now, before I close this review, you may ask, is all of this positive or negative commentary? I’d be glad to spell it out for you: Generally, when a death or black metal band adapts such a commercial sound, I hate it, but it works very well for Fester. Silence is a classic of its own that stands tall and proud next to Winter of Sin. I would recommend this album to black metal fans as well as anyone who likes any kind of melodic metal with blackened influence, whether that be Agalloch, Dissection, or Arghoslent. I give Fester’s Silence a solid 8/10.

Fester On MySpace

Genre: Metalcore, Melodic Death Metal, Hardcore

Label: Independent

After a shaky start with their citywide panned 2009 EP, Second Sight and a few harsh words exchanged between myself, and a couple members of the band about my “mis-categorizing” them in my coverage of their CD release party (F.Y.I. guys: your Metal-Archives page labels you as metalcore as well, so you might want to edit that), I was honestly ready to just toss this EP in the giveaway pile. A shitty EP, lukewarm live performance and drama, for me at least, do not an interesting metal band make.

But that would being playing dirty pool, wouldn’t it? So in the interest of fairness, let’s take an unbiased look at Under The Ashen Empire.

Immediately, I prefer Under The Ashen Empire to the earlier release due to the vocals alone! Frontman Jason Hooker’s (Hooker? V.D.? It was meant to be!) burly pipes belt out some top notch hardcore shouts ‘n’ screams that were severely missed in Von Doom’s earlier career. Also on the thumbs-up side of things is guitarist Billy Serocki innovative and aggressive riffing. The only time I didn’t catch myself going, “sweet fucking licks!” was to the opening of The Fade, which sounded like a discombobulated version of Amon Amarth’s The Pursuit Of Vikings. Von Doom also serves up a re-recording of fan favorite, The Human Condition that‘s an obvious improvement in everyway. Helped out undoubtedly by the crisp and clean mixing and mastering, courtesy of [BAMF] Studios.

Unfortunately, there is a fly or two in the ointment. While the re-recording of The Human Condition was welcome on one front, it felt like it took up space on this EP. If you’re flaunting a new line-up, stick to new material to help showcase the new sound. (But hey, at least they didn’t try cramming one of those lame, four minute atmospheric intros and/or outros into a five track EP!) There are also some pretty uninspired beats in here as well. While I have heard a lot worse (A LOT worse), it manages to drag the overall appeal of Under The Ashen Empire down a smidge.
Overall: While Von Doom isn’t the best metal band that Portland has to offer (in my opinion, that don’t mean shit by any means to most of you) they are galaxies away from being the worst. Under The Ashen Empire is a step forward for these guys and is definitely an EP to share with your friends if you want to show them why you think they rule.

8/10

Von Doom On Facebook

Von Doom On MySpace