Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Schattenkult Produktionen

And the Black Metal Gods (I’m sure there are at least two of them) have smiled upon my sorry ass once again!  I literally jumped for joy when I received this album in the mail and rushed straight home to throw it in my stereo. Long time readers may remember the dripping hard-ons that General Blaspheme and I have for this band. If you don’t and/or my vulgar appreciation for Nebrus is completely new to you, then all you really need to do is listen to just one song and you’ll understand where I’m coming from (and you’ll probably need a new change of underwear as well).

From The Black Ashes starts off strong with “Apocalypse”, a blistering ride through the beginning of the end. They tease you a bit with a break in the bleak with a momentary slow down in tempo that almost feels like everything is going to be okay. Like the world isn’t going to end in this horrible fashion that they’re describing… and suddenly, the sting of reaper’s scythe finds it’s mark on your soul! An awesome way to START your album, if you ask me.

From there, Nebrus just takes your expectations and runs off with them by taking all the vileness of black metal and merging it the finer points of doom metal. It’s like if you took Under The Sign Of The Black Mark and Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, broke them both in half and glued the two halves together to make the greatest mixture of black metal and doom metal that any metal mind ever dreamed of… assuming the breaking/gluing process was successful.

I’m happy to report that Noctuaria’s voice is just as ravaged and raw as ever, which keeps her high on my Favorite Black Metal Vocalist list right between Stefan Fiori and Lord Serpent. This time however, Mortifero duties pertained only to the drums, which are every bit as punishing as they were in Twilight Of Humanity. It’s the same with the guitars. Throughout From The Black Ashes, they are almost always sped up to your standard black metal speed riffs, but occasionally they break off into dreary doom hooks that are always laid in on just the right moments.

But the crowning jewel of From The Black Ashes has to be it’s closing track, “Banquet Of Oblivion”. Hearing Noctuaria scream, “I DON’T EXIST!” would start to weaken even the most galvanized of iron wills. An absolute perfect ending to easily one of the top three albums I’ve heard in 2012. No lie.

Overall: Nebrus, oh my sweet Nebrus… once again, your macabre form of blackened doom has come to lay waste to my other musical tastes. One listen to From The Black Ashes and you’ll get snagged on one of it’s many hooks! Even if black/doom isn’t your forte, you’ll find something about Nebrus’s new offering to enjoy. And if you can, track down one of the 66 copies of Nebrus’s EP, Twilight Of Humanity.

10/10

Nebrus Official
Nebrus On Facebook 

-  Typhon

Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Label: Comatose Music

I’ve always tried desperately to steer away from over using the ever popular descriptor “Brutal” but I believe it will prove to be quite difficult since I’m fairly certain that metal Spaniard Carlos Mejias may have helped write the book on it! I guess it’s no surprise since this one man wrecking project that goes by the name of Thirst Of Revenge resides in the ranks of Comatose Music.

Right off the bat, one this is made abundantly clear: Carlos knows how to work the set. His drumming is impeccable and is easily the best anything on this album. Past that, we have those throat decimating growls. Sure, they’re brutal as fuck and if I ran into this guy in a dark alley and he demanded that I give him my wallet in that growl, I’d give it to him without a second thought, but he may as well just be speaking in monotone since there is close to zero variation in his style aside from the occasion pig squeal. His guitar work consists of wrist fracturing speed riffs that while cogent, manage to get lost in the mix during some tracks.

But let’s hold up for a second and discuss something similar to my introduction for a moment: is there such a thing as “too much brutality”? I didn’t really think so… until I listened to Annihilation Of Races. You read that right folks! This album is TOO BRUTAL!!! Too brutal to be taken seriously. Too brutal to be admired by the snobbish metal elite (I can say whatever I want about them since I know they’d NEVER read anything from this site. Fuckers) and just a bit too brutal to be excellent. For now, I hope that Mister Mejias will be okay with a meager ”great” from this lowly journalist.

The spirit of death metal is clearly present throughout the length of Annihilation Of Races and for that, you can’t really fault this guy. I know I don’t. He poured his being into this project and you need only to listen to a few seconds of this album to know this.

Overall: This album is a practice in understanding moderation. Carlos Mejias either doesn’t quite understand how to or just doesn’t care to cut back on the heavy and low in exchange for some finesse or maybe even some technique. It’s really not a bad album, it just doesn’t take itself seriously, so why should any of you? But if brutality is your thing (you know who you are) then Annihilation Of Races is what you need to scratch that itch.

8/10

Thirst Of Revenge On ReverbNation
Thirst Of Revenge On Facebook 

Ah, Shaytan Productions. You’ve been so patient with me over these past couple of months. You see, I’ve been sitting on this review for about three months now and I’m FINALLY getting around to listening to it. I don’t know why, either. It’s destructive Italian black metal with some English and German lyrics with an Egyptian theme… *whew*

With that being said, there are a lot of other things that I could say about this offering. A LOT of things. But instead, I’ll sum it all up with this simple statement: HOLY FUCKING SHIT THERE’S A LOT OF AWESOME STUFF GOING ON IN THIS EP!!!  …Ok, you’ll probably need more than that to go on, won’t you?

First off, let’s talk about those vocals. Fucking killer! Quintessential black metal vocals that range from typical shrieks to tortured throaty screams! Every bit of which is used very effectively to tell various stories about mummification, purification and the end of the world! The guitar in this is more on the minimal side of things, but is once again, used very effectively. The riffs are tuned way down low, giving us that earth rumbling, “the end is nigh” sort of feeling. During the course of Awaiting The Golden Age, I had to keep checking the sky to make sure that it was really falling or turning blood fucking red! And now, the background meat of this EP: the synths and the like. Whenever there is programming in my black metal, I tend to get a little iffy about it. “Ewww.” I think. But solo honcho Hell-IO-Kabbalus managed to make what should of been a tinny, unattractive offering into a powerhouse of auditory awesome with orchestral stings, xylophones and various strings populating this twenty one minute EP. Somehow, H-I-K made Mantra For The End Of Times feel much longer in the process as well. Not that it really matters though. You’ll probably do like I did and just keep it on repeat for a day or two, looking for and find new things to love about it many times over.

Simply epic. Every note.

Overall: This is one of those releases that you just cannot in good conscience, let people not know about and can’t seem to recommend enough. I implore you good readers (at least, those of you who even kinda like black metal), track down this EP and snatch it up! You won’t regret it!

10/10

Kalki Avatara On MySpace

Genre: Death Metal, Grind

Label: Comatose Music

Modus Delicti started up after the band Nobody broke up in 2005. In 2006, they broke up again and reformed within the same year… yeah. After hearing that, I wasn’t expecting a whole hell of a lot from this band either. But the test of their mantel is in their metal, not in their tumultuous history. After giving Nobody a spin, I have this to say:

If you like spastic grind in the vein of Kill The Client and more groove heavy death metal by way of Skinless, then this six year veteran of the Italian metal circuit and their first full length album are right up your awesome choice of alley!

I don’t really need to say a whole lot more than that for this review. Modus Delicti plays some fairly technical, yet eerily relaxed grindcore that’s akin to countrymen Tsubo’s style. The guitar buzzes through riff after bloody violent riff and even slows down for a little melodic break in Beyond The Mask. Claude De Rosa, Modus Delicti’s drummer, is a killer. Plain and simple. ADHD pummeling and controlled, technical blasts move this band out of the shadows of mediocre grind and into “keep your eyes and these guys” territory.

The vocals aren’t terrible most of the time.  But every once in a while, there’s that irritating Cookie Monster growl that pops up and ruins the flow of an already brutal song. And as for flow breakage, at the end of The Teeth Collector, there’s about thirty seconds of silence that just annoys this piss out of me. Why the hell is that even there?

Overall: Modus Delicti’s debut album, Nobody is about twenty four minutes of a brutal groove ‘n’ grind fest!

8/10

Modus Delicti On Facebook

Modus Delicti On MySpace

Genre: Black Metal

Label: Agonia Records

I went through a period a couple years ago where I was really into DSBM, or depressive/suicidal black metal. Forgotten Tomb are one of the bigger names of the genre, but they never really clicked for me. Mainly because their music isn’t depressing, which as you have no doubt determined is a key attribute of DSBM.

“Under Saturn Retrogade” is no different, and maybe even worse; I’m not sure about the latter because I’m not intimately  familiar with their discography.

This album sounds like Satyricon’s “Now, Diabolical”, the music being mainly watered down, catchy black metal. Whether the band genuinely thought they were writing depressing black metal or not, I cannot say, but there are cliche power chord riffs and half assed vocals as far as the eye can see. How exactly is this DSBM again?

Unfortunately, Forgotten Tomb don’t stop there, oh no sir. They push themselves even further away from black metal with the inclusion of clean vocals sprinkled throughout the album. This is not necessarily a bad choice, some bands (Lurker of Chalice) do it well, but the execution is awful and sounds like the kind of “emotional” singing you hear in nu-metal and post grunge crap.

I’m going to wrap this up quickly, as I don’t have much else to say about this album besides how it’s not depressing or black metal or good, but I will say something positive. The  last 3 songs on the album, all of which feature prominent acoustic guitars, flow together pleasantly, and I think they sound like something of a trilogy. They suck less ass than the rest of the album.

Overall, I wouldn’t say this isn’t worth listening to unless you’re already a fan of the band. I can’t recommend this to fans of DSBM because it fails as an attempt at DSBM, and I can’t recommend it to fans of black metal because it fails as an attempt at black metal. For a truly superior Depressive Suicidal listening experience, go pick up Thy Light’s “Suici.depression” or ”Soundtrack to a Suicide – Opus II” by Nocturnal Depression.

I rate this 4/10, all 4 points coming from the final 3 songs.

Forgotten Tomb on Myspace