Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy/Nu Metal
Label: Independent

Up next, we’ve got a French band, who’s album I’ve been sitting on for a while. Abinaya plays a mixture of heavier nu-metal akin to the likes of Soulfly (and I’m not just saying that because there are bongos on almost every song) or Tool or maybe even Disturbed and hard rock. Now before the vast majority of you navigate away from this page to go download girl-on-goat porn, Corps isn’t a band that tries to piggyback on bands that were popular ten years ago. Abinaya takes what WAS exciting about a genre that grew incredibly stale all those years ago and turned it into something that resembles metal by adding their own lethal touch to it!

Vocally, there’s a lot of cleans that feels more like the vocalist was just pissed off and used the mic to vent his anger and pour his soul into every word. So even though the lyrics are in French, I still got the feeling that I knew what was being said… As for as the four and six strings are concerned it’s a case Yin & Yang: the guitarist flings a flurry of furious fireballs at the listener while the bass keeps things harmonious with it hypnotic bouncing and booming, calming and just. Well crafted. And then we get to the drum work. It’s pretty damn good… when you can hear it. Now, I don’t know if it was an error or by choice, but I could barely hear them most of the time. I mean, the double bass (when it happened) shot through ok, but mostly all I heard was the vocalist and guitar. Hmm…

Overall: Abinaya is goin’ places. You can quote me on that. I’m sure their next album will be harder and hopefully faster that Corps. And for that, I’m thoroughly excited!

9.5/10

Abinaya On MySpace

When: Wednesday July 8, 2010
Where: New City Likwid Lounge, Edmonton, Alberta

Long story short, a French death metal band called The Seven Gates were going to be destroying New City with Sonorous Odium as direct support, with Titan’s Eve and Auroch from Vancouver opening the show up. Shit goes down and suddenly The Seven Gates were not able to make it. Sent back to Frace from what I understand to be a passport issue. So Sonorous Odium were given the headliner slot. Now, onwards:

Titan’s Eve took the stage and very quickly impressed me and Mrs. Blaspheme. Their overall sound reminds me of Trivium without the polish, something still thrashy and much more raw. Before and after the set we ended up talking to Brian, their singer, and he’s definitely one of the most humble musicians I’ve met, and a really cool dude too. Wait for that video to hit the intertubes soon!
If you ever get the chance to check Titan’s Eve, do it.

A short while after Titan’s Eve left the stage, their fellow Vancouverites and brothers in metal Auroch stepped up with a very different approach to death metal, one that got them a few fans around the room. Mixing clean vocals, high falsettos, and gutterals all from the same throat, they sound a lot like Morbid Angel in the music department at times. Solos fly like bats out of hell, with intricate leads and intense rhythm, and Lovecraftian lyrics. Really fucking good, they definitely made sure that Sonorous Odium were going to have to be on their A-game.

Which, well, they were. Edmonton’s own pride and joy, Sonorous Odium play melodic death metal that reminds me of Arch Enemy (whom their guitarist sported a shirt by incidentally). They also pay some tribute to black metal in some riffs, going as far as covering Behemoth’s “Demigod” as a show closer. These guys fucking kick ass, and I think you’ll be hearing a lot of them over the next couple years. If not from others, at least from me.

In all, it was a great night. My first show upstairs in Likwid Lounge and I am not disappointed in the least, despite the headliner not showing up. Oh well, maybe next time they’ll make it.

Titan’s Eve on MySpace.
Auroch on MySpace.
Sonorous Odium on MySpace.

Genres: Black Metal, Depressive Black Metal, Shoegaze
Labels: Apparitia Recordings, Drakkar Productions

Celestia bring a cool sounding black metal to the table with Archenae Perfectii…, and it’s definitely more original than many two-person black metal bands’ output in recent years. Not content with trying to write Darkthrone or Mayhem clones, Celestia actually have something here that, although not a completely groundbreaking new sound, is genuinely solid and very much their own.
I can hear elements of their fellow countryman Neige’s project Alcest in it, as well as touches of Norwegian and Swedish black metal, some punk and classic metal, and even some gothic metal, all tossed together and mixed up nicely. Add in the fact that there is some production going on rather than just putting some lo-fi shit to tape, you’ve got a nice listen too.
7 out of 10.

Celestia on MySpace.

Genres: Death Metal, Gothic Metal, Thrash
Label: Asylum Ruins

Eclectika sent me this promo recently, and I finally got to check it out. Much to my chagrin.
Ultimately, the band is meshing too many styles together for it to be a cohesive listen. Everything clashes with everything else, and the genre-shifting is not fluid, but rather jarring. As such, the album is not fun to listen to and becomes Dazzling Yawn.
The members of the band themselves are obviously talented, as the music and singing is done very well. It’s the clashing styles that does Eclectika the injustice of making their most recent album hard to listen to. Otherwise, if they picked a path that was a little less winding, I think they could make great headway through it and kick some ass.
5 out of 10.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Paragon Records

A little while ago, I was going through one hell of a black metal phase. I listened to EVERY black metal album in my collection (choosing to double back a listen to Darkestrah and Primordial numerous times) before scouting out new black metal online. And then, I received Nous Reviendrons Immortels by way of Paragon Records and the United States Postal Service.

I momentarily mistook the name for Alderon (the ill fated planet from A New Hope) and interpreted it as a bad omen… but then the fan boy in me noticed that I’m an idiot and all was well again as I realized that it was, indeed… more black metal! “Callooh-Callay!” I proclaimed as I rushed to my laptop to add Nous Reviendrons Immortels to my iTunes collection.

Aldaaron plays their black metal with an inventive spring to it all. Everything just comes together so perfectly and with such a wonderfully dreary overtone. Of course there are glaring influences from legends of the genre (the most obvious being Burzum and lessers being Carpathian Forest and possibly Blood Stained Dusk), but they don’t veer away from their core of Aldaaronishness.

This album attacks all with a basic formula of evil, speed and hate. Everything feels standard issue (raspy vocals, speedy footwork and string play, etc…) but then Aldaaron add on a haunting choir, light orchestratic pieces and inventive reverb effect to both the guitars and vocals in key moments that can make you second guess your allegiance to all things kvlt.

Overall: Diehard fans of the genre will take to Nous Reviendrons Immortels like clergymen to preteen boy ass! However, there will be some of the more fresh arrivals to the black market that won’t be so thrilled (more so if they like it bloody raw) with Aldaaron’s slick take on a godly premise. A crisp production is always a polarizer and I’ll never figure out why…

9/10

Aldaaron On MySpace

Also Posted On E-MetalSpace