Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Black Metal, Gothic, Progressive, Thrash, Doom, Your Mom
Label: Independent (But honestly shouldn‘t be)

Yet another entry in the Funeral Rain archives that start out with “I honestly didn’t know what to expect from _____…” But seriously, the ghastly cover art for Hour Of The Night Gaunts and the rude, crude and full of ‘tude approach that the lads in Invertic, rux have on their Facebook page immediately paint them out to be wildcards capable of anything under the metal sun!

I’ve never been so dead on before. Vintage Flesh is (er… was, as they are now known as Inverticrux) capable of ANYTHING and they show it on their very last album! And while I was scanning the ‘net for intel on these guys, I managed to find nothing but iffy reviews about their “played out” and “why bother” style of metal… but what the hell do “they” know? Hour Of The Night Gaunts is a heavily complex album, full of material that any true metalhead/gothic whatsit should be drooling over by the first note!

Vocalist RayPissed chooses to go down a path that you don’t hear very often in metal of this caliber: falsetto. I’m sure a lot of you are thinking King Diamond right about now, but you’re way off. It’s more of a blackened shriek mixed with a woman in a 60’s sitcom who just saw a mouse. Now those of you who thought King Diamond are all frowny faced. But guess what? Fuck you! I like this style. It’s unique and plays off the rest of the band very well. But Mr. Pissed also manages to throw in these over the top, dramatic semi-soliloquies that HAUNT as well as entertain. Oh, and there’s some excellent growls thrown in there from time to time, generally as an accent or background vocal. At any rate, the vocals are top notch!

I’m not really sure how to continue this review since all I’m going to do is verbally jizz all over the tight musicianship and the virtual ghostly opera that goes down from begin to end. The twelve car pile up of genre melding can go from doomy funeral dirges that give way to scorching black metal riffs that make room for pseudo-power metal melodies in just one track! Substance. This album has it.

Overall: Hour Of The Night Gaunts is a fun, haunting ride from Follow Me To The Grave to While I Wandered Away With Death. If you don’t get what these spooky cats are laying down, then kindly remove the stick from betwixt yer buttocks so that I might replace it with my boot!

10/10

Inverticrux On Facebook

Genre: Shoegaze
Label: Projekt

Every so often I check out Projekt’s site and see what’s new and what’s coming up, as well as read the newsletters that Sam sends out pretty much weekly. And so when I found out that Autumn’s Grey Solace was going to be putting out a new album I was pretty stoked.
I first head AGS on a Projekt sampler way back like ten years ago or so and I fell in love. So did my wife. So when the video for “A Soul Ensnared” came out, I watched it, and got even more stoked. I ordered Eifelian shortly after, as well as a couple other CDs. Eifelian has been played over and over in the car, and I’ve come to not just enjoy it, but to outright love this album. It’s so full of emotion, taking me through a journey through happiness, sadness, and anticipation. Thankfully, it doesn’t enter pure depression territory, but even the best emotions are tinted with a fair amount of melancholy, in a way that only Autumn’s Grey Solace can perform.
The guitar is very chordal and heavy effected; leads that are a mile long, and so beautiful with a bass line that has a groove deep enough to lie down in; the drums are full of poppy toms and snare and cymbal crashes. Erin’s voice is used quite differently compared to many other shoegaze bands, being more of an instrument than a vocalization. Some songs it doesn’t seem she even sings lyrics at all. But when she does (“Halfway Underground”, “A Soul Ensnared”) it is just beautiful, and I like these songs a little more than the rest.
It’s probably not ‘essential’ for some, but for me, I’m in love. Eifelian takes a big win.
8 out of 10.

Autumn’s Grey Solace on Facebook.

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: Gothic, Dark Metal, Power Metal, Groove
Label: Dynamic Arts Records

Angel Blake’s “The Descended” was a bit of a skull itch for me for the first few listens. Goth-power metalishness… I really didn’t know what to think exactly. I mean, it was good. It just seemed strange to me. There was something about The Descended that I couldn’t quite put my finger on… then suddenly, I figured it out! It wasn’t the music at all! It was the fact that I heard the name “Angel Blake” somewhere before. It was that Danzig song… Angel Blake.

And now that I’ve wasted your time with a glimpse into how my semi-formed brain functions, I can express now much I enjoyed this album. The first song, Anywhere But Here, is actually kind of misleading. It’s actually not that enjoyable. Which leads you to believe that the rest of the album will follow suit… nope. Tracks two through ten are thoroughly enjoyable. Each track has heavy grooves and hook laden choruses that will keep you coming back for more! But then again, it could be due to my hefty man-crush on Christian Alvestam, who lends his all powerful pipes for guest spots in the songs Defenseless and You’ll Never Need To Feel Again, that causes my gleeful love for this album… nah. Angel Blake delivers the goods!

Overall: As far as power-y, gothic-ish metal goes, this is just about as good as it gets.

7.5/10

Angel Blake On MySpace

Genre: Gothic, Blackened, Deathcore
Label: Rising Records

…wait, wasn’t Angtoria Sarah’s “solo” project? Oh well. I really shouldn’t complain.

Apparently not being content with her slew of back up/assisting credits, Sarah Jezebel Deva springs forth from the shadows and hammers us with an onslaught of powerful, but catchy yet, haunting sonnets in, A Sign Of Sublime.

It’s quite a cocktail that makes up this potent intoxicant: the enchantress’s platinum pipes, a deathcore drummer (Max Blunos, ex-Trigger The Bloodshed), a godly, death metal bassist (Dave Pybus of Massacre), a gothic doomster on the board (Martin Powell, ex-My Dying Bride) and an inventive guitarist (Ken Newman). I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sloshed already!

I’m not really sure what people are going to be expecting when they check this album out. But I can tell you this: I wasn’t expecting what I heard at all. Which wasn’t a bad thing at all. I was expecting some gothicly infused, blackened rock ‘n’ metal… you know, what we heard on God has A Plan For Us All. This time however, we get this oddly awesome mixture of ‘core drumming, 80’s rock and pop melodies (Your Wonderful Chair), progressive tones in both the bass and guitar that sometimes dips into blackened territory (They Called Her Lady Tyranny). And, of course, the classically trained voice of Mistress Deva.

My one complaint? The very last track is a cover of Meredith Brooks’s Bitch… it’s a decent cover, I am just so fucking tired of that song! Although… imagining Sarah as a “goddess on her knees” was all too enticing… I MEAN! Umm… yeah. I didn’t dig it.

Overall: An great album from a powder keg of brilliant musicians! Sarah’s voice is amazing as usual and the songs stick with you long after you’re finished listening.

9/10

Sarah Jezebel Deva On MySpace