Funeral Rain Press Corps

Heavy music innovators Prong have signed a worldwide recording contact with Long Branch Records/SPV. Founded in 1986 Prong are considered to be pioneers of the American post-hardcore and post-metal scenes whose influence is still being felt today. The as yet untitled album will be released in Spring 2012.

Prong frontman Tommy Victor commented on signing with Long Branch/SPV:

“I feel like Prong has come full circle. We have the same energy and excitement about our music that we did at the beginning of our career. With Long Branch/SPV we’ve found people to work with who are very supportive of us and what Prong has accomplished so far in our career.”

SPV A&R representative Maria Ouellette spoke about signing Prong:

“We’re extremely excited to welcome Prong into the SPV/Long Branch Records fold! Tommy Victor’s musical innovation and influence is far-reaching and inspirational, and exactly what we’re about. We’re proud that we can be part of their next musical milestone!”

Genre: Doom, Sludge
Label: Independent

FIVEWILLDIE (Five Will Die, FWD, 5WD) have been one of my favorite bands ever since Funeral Rain Zine was a shitty hole on MySpace. These Irish lads were one of the first bands I hooked up with and ever since then I’ve been wanting to hear more from them. And now I have. And wow.

Worth & Soul is a killer doom album, perfect for fans of faster, angrier doom. Elements of death metal and hardcore are all over the place, with slow breakdowns and beatdowns. If you’re expecting a Katatonia or My Dying Bride here, you’re looking in the wrong direction. Instead what you’ll get is a face full of fists. Tracks take an anti-Christian bend as well, in a more atheistic way, and some spots (especially in “Seeds”) are even reminiscent of Tool.

The album itself starts with “Wrecks of Men”, which features Andy’s roar right from the start, going straight for the eyes. The riffage is slow, deep and solid. Perfect for headbanging while pounding your fist on the patch-laden vest of the bloke in front of you in the pit. The general feel really doesn’t change, but “Nothing Against Your Conscience” does slow it down even further for a time to get you ready for the next assault. “Sons of Horus” is just fucking vicious, viscous doom, and “Great Minds and Fools” keeps it up. “Blood and Soil” is one of those songs that I can see getting covered by other bands. It’s slower than your grandmother driving and just as scary. “Blame the Martyr” takes on a more classic doom feel at the start, then brings in that FWD flavor with tons of crunchy broken noses; one of the best tracks on the album. “Seeds” takes the same route, with a clean guitar at the start and some asskicking through the rest, with a slow and clean spot in the middle to breathe for a moment. The pit stays slow again for the final track, the title track “Worth & Soul”, a time to wipe the blood and sweat from your face and finish off another pair of beers before heading into the night.

So needless to say, FIVEWILLDIE have outdone themselves. Worth & Soul is by far their best work, and hopefully indicative of where they will be headed in the future. A fucking masterpiece, I’ll be spinning this shit for years to come.
10 out of 10.

03 Sons Of Horus by Five Will Die

FIVEWILLDIE on Facebook.

Genre: Technical, Hardcore, Progressive, Melodic Death Metal

Label: Sumerian Records

Ah ha! Now here’s a band that doesn’t seem to polarize people nearly as much as my last two review subjects. In fact, I can’t seem to throw a stone without hitting someone who is completely indifferent about Born Of Osiris. That actually bugs me. Born Of Osiris tends to get lumped in with either the shitty end of metalcore or the even shittier end of deathcore. But honestly, I don’t think that you can categorize them as simply as that. Nobody ever seems to remember the progression or the clear as day hardcore influences. Ugh…

Right from the start, Born Of Osiris brings their A-Game with The Discovery. A more than hearty, “FOLLOW THE SIGNS!!!” greets you at second number one followed by a torrent of intricate keys, chords and ka-drums that coalesce into the best opening to an album that I’ve heard all year. And in case you’re new to the Born Of Osiris game: Good lord, there’s a lot going on in these songs! If the tracks within The Discovery were a posh socialite shindig, the hall would be packed to the rafters with beautiful people, hobnobbing about cutting edge technology while beating the shit out of each other… to the music of Born Of Osiris! They’re complex, intelligent, pretty as shit to the ears and tend to swing fists violently!

Something I’ll point out that makes the most impact here: the keys. Theres a lot of the little synthesized effects that sound like they could of been ripped out of Metroid or some other piece of 8-bit awesome! The keys put subtle accents on the melodies and mix well with the vocals (especially the backing cleans) and they appear in every track, yet they never over stay their welcome. That last one is most impressive since most bands that use synths either over use them or make them the focal point, which is incredibly annoying.

And now, the negs. The vocals are on par with everything you’ve heard from The New Reign and A Higher Place, which is why once again I’m forced to bitch about the whining shout that backs up the more hardcore growl. Seriously, ditch that concept! The main vocals are strong enough to not need secondary ‘core shouting. Next, I wish that there were more clean vocals. They really work well in the background, but I feel like having them higher in the mix or having them appear more often would really help break up some of the vocal monotony… which is complaint number three. In every song, the main vocalist doesn’t change it up at all. I don’t know if he can’t or doesn’t want to, but I’m telling you that if he changed his pitch (lower in most points, to a growl, would be best) I’d be happier.

Overall: The Discovery is aptly titled since this is the album I would suggest to people that haven’t listened to them before. It’s a feels like a natural progression for Born Of Osiris since I thought that A Higher Place was the best thing these guys had put out up until then too! Highly recommended.

9/10

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Genres: Doom, Hardcore, Sludge
Label: Anthropic Records

Philadelphia’s own Anthropic Records lets another free compilation CD out of it’s doors, and it’s chock full of Philly’s greatest doomsayers and sludge masters.
It features tracks from Bubonic Bear (“Throat Cancer Mountain”, 8), Wormrider (“Heroic Brew”, 7), The Green Evening Requiem (“Debilitation Tide”, 9), Ladder Devils (“Pyramid”, 8), Distress Signal (“Untitled”, 7), Thee Nosebleeds (“Fenderhead”, 7), Deathbeds (“Danny Husk”, 9), Vulcan (“Stranger in Black”, 7), and Dirt Worshipper (“The Absence of Color and Light”, 9).
In all, it’s pretty fucking sweet, and a good way to wreck your eardrums. If you’re into doom and sludge, it’s perfect, especially since it has a nice hardcore edge to some of the songs to throw in some variety.
8 out of 10.

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

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