Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Black Metal, Depressive Black Metal, Post Metal, Post Rock, Shoegaze
Labels: ATMF

The crushing beauty of shoegaze and post metal combined with the savagery of raw black metal make up the first track off of Everything, “Forever Never Fails”. It’s like a year of pure urgent emotion turned into a five minute and thirteen second long song. And it alone is worth the money for the album.

“Formlessness” comes next, with very My Bloody Valentine sounding music and Sargeist/Craft vocals. If this doesn’t get your heart moving, you’re probably dead. It differs from “Forever Never Fails” primarily in the bass work, lending it less of an urgency and more of a solemnity. Oddly enough, it is also exactly five minutes and thirteen seconds long.

“Absence of Contrast” contrasts nicely with “Formlessness”, it’s piano lines and bass setting off a nice throb to inhale opium to. “We All Fall” takes a more post rock feel despite the savagery of the vocals. Spoken words make an appearance as well, an interesting and nice change up. “Nothing/Everything” takes a more depressive black metal via shoegaze feel. The keyboard work here is exemplary, taking more of a lead then a coloring overlay.

“Her Dress as a Poem, Her Death as the Night” flows with a deep melancholy, deep bass carrying you through an ocean of keys with waves of guitar crushing you down, under. This is utter depression in musical form, and it’s beautiful and cathartic, another song worthy of being worth the album’s price. I just wish it was longer.

“I am the Veil” would feel like an indie rock song if it weren’t for the key drones in the back and the blackened vocals. The keys come forward as pianos and make it even less indie rock and more post metal/depressive black. “Cold Spring” is totally the opposite, going straight for post metal/shoegaze from the start, a heart stopping vocal performance that upon repeat listens continually drags you through varying emotional states.

Despite “Cold Spring” being a great song, the final track “Rain” trumps it easily, and is one of the best songs on the album. Guitar feedback and keyboards blend over a slower, higher pitched bass line, with sung vocals making a brief appearance. The song as a whole has a feeling of a triumphant ending, which it is for the album. Wonderful.

As a whole, Everything is a gorgeous album that takes the listener through many parts of the emotional spectrum. There is joy here, there is sadness, there is anger, and there is even love. But it all takes on a melancholic darkness that is hard to shake off after listening. I highly recommend getting this, especially if you’re a fan of My Bloody Valentine, Autumn’s Grey Solace, Jesu, Darkthrone, The Cure, or Cry.

10 out of 10.

An Autumn for Crippled Children on Facebook.

Genres: Black Metal, Blackened Dark Ambient, Drone, Doom, Industrial
Label: Crucial Blast

Mories is back with another album full of terror-fueled and terrifying sounds under his Gnaw Their Tongues banner.
It’s really difficult to describe GTT’s sound as far as genre goes, because there is a lot of different things coming together to create the album. There is definitely black metal and dark ambient, but there’s also a little bit of drone/doom going on, and some industrial embellishments, reminding me of Skinny Puppy’s darker stuff at times.
The black metal is not your average Scandinavian fare, nor even American styled. It’s more like True Mories Black Metal, really. His vocals are tortured, his songs all explorations to the shroud of death on this album, and the ambiance throughout is deep, dark, and fucking horrifying, with the keys and strings coming more to the foreground over the vocals.
If you’re into Aderlating and haven’t checked Gnaw Their Tongues yet, or if you’re a fan of GGT already, just get the CD. You won’t regret it.
9 out of 10.

Gnaw Their Tongues on MySpace.

Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore, Thrash
Label: SPV GmbH

The Sickness Within continues my new love of HateSphere, and contributes to my quest of writing questions for Peter.
It’s odd to hear newer material from a band, then go back in the past with their older songs, and this is exactly what I’ve done. I’m finding The Sickness Within is definitely less death metal than To the Nines, with more metalcore and thrash going on. I’m definitely liking this.
The technical side of things seems to be up there a bit, with some fancy fingers going on with the guitars and bass through the leads and some of the rhythms, but when there’s a breakdown the riffs simplify and the heads bang.
Anders’ drumming will never be considered mindblowing for this album,  but he’s solid like a rock, and his use of smaller toms in fills rather than just straight bass/snare work is great to hear. A good example of what I’m talking about comes in “Murdrous Intent” and “The Coming of Chaos”.
Of course, with hard music in general, it’s all in the voice for some people. And Jacob’s throat is in fine form for this album, with an impressive roar that puts lots of metalcore singers to shame. It’s a great voice for thrashy parts, it’s great for more deathy parts, and thankfully it never gets melodic with annoying clean singing.
If you’re a fan of HateSphere and you don’t have this, get it. If you’re a metalcore fan and you don’t have this, get it. If you’re a thrash fan looking for something new to the collection that’s a little off the beaten thrash path, get it.
7.5 out of 10.

HateSphere on MySpace.

Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore
Label: Napalm Records

I will admit it: I never really heard HateSphere until I found out they were coming to Edmonton to open for Nevermore. Then I made a definite point to buy as much as I could find before the show. So far I’ve only found To the Nines, but my hunt continues…
Anyway, To the Nines. It’s fucking great. A nice mix of Dutch melodeath and metalcore, full of wicked riffs (“Clarity” has my favorite opening riff on the album, having a hard rock feel) and throat ripping vocals. It really sticks out in a crowded genre because of the straight rock influences, at least for me. Lyrically too, taking a vaguely political stance in some cases, a misanthropic air pervading almost everything, and a feeling of disgust at what humanity is doing to itself.
Like I said, fucking great.
8 out of 10.

HateSphere on MySpace.

Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Independent

The Netherlands are a hotbed of metal activity that for whatever reason seems to escape the view of a lot of people. Thankfully, some bands are proactive in getting their names out there, and Posthuman are one of those bands. They emailed me asking if I wanted to do up a review of their new, independently released album.
And this album is awesome. It reminds me a lot of Swedish melodeath, but at the same time has a different flavor. It’s nice and original, a fast moving concept about the end of humanity, the destruction of the world at our own hands, and the rebuilding just to go back to our old ways.
I’m definitely liking what I hear, and if you’re into melodic death you’ll probably like these guys too.
7.5 out of 10.

Posthuman on MySpace.