Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Doom
Label: Peaceville

English doom masters Anathema’s classic 1995 album The Silent Enigma was remastered and rereleased by Peaceville in 2003, and as a wicked bonus, it comes with a DVD with four promo vids and a 1996 concert in Krakow.
The album itself is rifftastic, slow moving doom with astonishing vocals from Vincent Cavanagh, who at the time the album was recorded was brand new to the microphone. It’s very British, with comparisons to My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, the other two bands that along with Anathema make up the Peaceville Three, but it’s different in ways that defines Anathema from the rest of the doom metal pack.
For The Silent Enigma, I award a 7.5 out of 10.
The DVD, entitled A Vision of a Dying Embrace, is really good. The promo videos are pretty much what you’d expect, the same vids you could have caught on MTV, MuchMusic, or any other music video TV station back when they still existed. As it is, you can probably catch these videos on YouTube now. The concert, however, is a different story.
It’s a very well filmed show in what looks like a fair-sized venue with a pretty big and supportive crowd. The audio is exceptional, with many camera angles to enjoy the concert from. In many cases the view is much more intimate than what the concertgoers themselves could attain, which is pretty damn sweet. This is the kind of show that could be put onto it’s own DVD without being included as a bonus to an album.
A Vision of a Dying Embrace gets itself an 8 out of 10.

Anathema Fan Page on Facebook.

Genre: Shoegaze
Label: Hydra Head Records

I grabbed Jesu’s Silver E.P. on a whim one day. I’ve heard tons of great things about the band, and Justin Broadrick in general, and the CD was a 2 for $30 at HMV, so I grabbed it. And wow, I’m so glad I did, and so is my wife.
The album reminds us of My Bloody Valentine, which is a very good thing, as both of us are huge fans of MBV. I thought it would have been a much harder listen, but apparently the two albums that came before this one were, with Broadrick taking a more poppy approach this time.
The songs have a simplistic bass riff, with swirling guitars that are distorted and heavy, but the true weight comes from Justin’s voice. He’s a great singer, and he really knows how to use what he has for maximum effect. The lengths of the songs themselves are all six and a half minutes or longer, with “Wolves” at 8:27, but like good, well written longer songs, they don’t feel overwhelming or begin to drag on.
I’d recommend this gorgeous E.P. for fans of Broadrick’s other work (Godflesh, Final, Napalm Death), shoegaze fans, and fans of Pelican, Isis, Cult of Luna, etc., as well as fans of Nine Inch Nail’s The Fragile album. There are definitely elements inside of the song “Wolves” that remind me strongly of The Fragile.
9.5 out of 10.

Jesu Official Site

Genres: Metalcore, Metallic Hardcore, Progressive Metalcore
Label: Listenable Records

A brutal beatdown of extremely talented proportions, The Eyes of a Traitor’s Breathless is a metallic hardcore assault on the senses. Well, assault on one sense at least. Auditory receptors will become scarred with the high volume and repetitive listening that this album will cause.
Sing-along parts that are not full of whiny vocals, but rather strong emotive ones are coupled with screams that sound like come from the soul, not the lungs. Simple guitar parts are followed by fingerburners with great solos and killer blasts from the drum kit. In other words, it’s progressive metalcore, pushing the often stale genre to a new height, seeming to take what Killswitch Engage and their contemporaries all brought to the table and combining it into something else to make it their own.
I definitely recommend getting this into your collection.
8.5 out of 10.

The Eyes of a Traitor on MySpace.

UKBM mastermind Anti of Intra Tenebrae has posted a new track on MySpace. “A Ritual Of Malice” is the new masterpiece, from the upcoming demo To Speak Your Name. Check out the new track at the Intra Tenebrae MySpace page.

Genre: Deathcore
Label: Candlelight

Opening with a pretty sounding instrumental (“Lux Et Tenebris”), Viatrophy’s self-titled debut sounds like a band that’s been seasoned with years of experience in the underground.
In other words, it sounds pissed off.
Mixing a gentle amount of prog and black into their deathcore, Viatrophy throw some chuggy riffage with snare-riding blasts in your face, creating a deathcore that is engaging and interesting. It’s definitely one of the most memorable deathcore releases I’ve heard in awhile, and I’d recommend it to people that are into multiple scenes the most. Straight deathcore fans might not like the subtleties as much as more diverse fans.
In the end, Viatrophy’s self-titled brings a pain to my neck and scars to my eardrums.
7 out of 10.