Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Black Metal, Crust Punk, Doom
Label: Independent

I’ve always had a long standing fascination with The United Kingdom. Everything from it’s incredibly rich history, beautiful countryside, interesting cuisine and it’s influence on American music. The most so being the latter with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal… but you already knew that one, right? Anyway, both bands on this split are from the U.K. and both fit into that influential slot as well… at least, I believe they will over time.

Old Corpse Road (The Bones Of This Land Are Not Speechless) - What jumps out immediately about the tracks on this split put out by OCR is the greater variation in vocal styles. Sure it’s still got rasps by the hearse full and some spoken word bits, but the addition of more growls and some group chanting is very welcome indeed. Other than that tweak, this is the same Old Corpse Road that I went gaga over in the last issue. I do want to add this though; as unsettling and generally creepy the story told in The Witch Of Wooky Hole is, the title reminds me of a game the missus and I play in zee boudoir…

The Meads Of Asphodel (English Black Punk Metal) - Seven tracks: two original, five covers… Kind of an odd combo of songs chosen for this split. But hey, it totally works for The Meads Of Asphodel. This newly signed to Candlelight Records threesome of black metal warriors pump out some sonically twisted covers here. Some great (War Drum by Skeptix), some ok (Nazi by Hellbastard) and some offensive (You Really Got Me by The Kinks). The original tracks are really where it’s at here, even if there are only two and one is a droning intro track of profane insults about sucking Satan‘s cock. With the first two tracks, you get a feel for who The Meads Of Asphodel are and what the style has to offer the metal community at large. A unique blend of crusty black metal and underlying doom and avant garde tones. You have to actually listen to them in order to pick up what I’m laying down here…

Overall: There’s definitely a good thing going on in this split. The balance between these two groups of black metal geniuses is damn near perfect! It’s worth a listen if you’re a casual fan and ranks high on the “Must Own” side of the scale for those of you who love to dig for splits.

8.5/10

Old Corpse Road On MySpace
The Meads Of Asphodel On MySpace

Also Posted On E-MetalSpace

Genre: Black Metal, Folk Metal
Label: Independent

Old Corpse Road struck an immediate chord with me and my small town past. I lived in Molalla for a while (a tiny, bumfuck town that’s populated by hicks and inbred Christians) and had an experience that parallels one of the yarns on The Echoes Of Tales Once Told. There was a long and overgrown road that you had to pass through to get to the main part of town for where I was staying (miles away… fucking sucked) that was chock full of scary stories and urban legends (and discarded condoms and needles). It lead past the old and mostly forgotten cemetery, which was equidistant from the town and the housing settlement. The path I traveled was actually two paths combined; one from town to the cemetery and the other from the cemetery to the settlement. This creep-tastic path was refered to as “The 420 Trail” by the “cool” high schoolers… but some of the old timers called it, you guessed it, The Old Corpse Road!

Ok, enough of that! Onto the review!

The U.K. five some known as Old Corpse Road, bring a wee bit of superstition to the table with their blackened offering of an EP,  The Echoes Of Tales Once Told. Immediately, the listener is pulled in and thrashed about by the torrent of intense melodies and tortured vocals! Also brought into the terrifying turbulence of it all is the addition of a violin, which is uses sparingly and thus, masterfully! Lyrically, OCR dives into their homeland’s darker history to find inspiration (take the little Oakmen for example).  As far as musical influences go; Primordial and Emperor… Nuff said!

This EP is only three tracks long… and I’m actually ok with that. Sometimes, all you need is three tracks of PERFECT black metal to be satisfied, you know?

Overall: This album is easily some of the most inventive and intelligent metal I’ve ever heard. The Echoes Of Tales Once Told pulls you in with old world lore and encapsulates you with the vicious black metal that culminates in the feeling dread, produced by ghost from worlds almost forgotten! EP stands for EPIC!!!

10/10

Old Corpse Road On MySpace

Also Posted On E-MetalSpace

Genres: Black Metal
Label: Godreah Records

Old Corpse Road continue from their first demo with growth into an even better, tighter sounding band on this split CD. The Bones of This Land are not Speechless is an awesome batch of English black metal, infused with classic Celtic/English musical styling and some really cool sounding piano. The guitars, drums, and bass are nice and cold, with seriously kvlt vocals. It’s just great.
9 out of 10.

The Meads of Asphodel’s half of the split, English Black Punk Metal, is only two of their own songs, including a creepy/cool intro with pretty sounding piano and some drones, with sampled speaking throughout. The rest of their half is covers of some classic metal songs, and a blackened version of the Kinks “You Really Got Me”, which is super cool to hear.
8.5 out of 10.

Old Corpse Road on MySpace.
The Meads of Asphodel on MySpace.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Independent

Old Corpse Road sent me this promo, and I gave it a listen. I like what I hear. It’s a keyboard filled, tremolo picked, and shriek infested disc of black metal, but there’s also softer, prettier elements in it too, specifically on the final song, the 11:23 long “The Oakmen of Naddle Forest”.
It’s a longish demo/EP, about 25 minutes long, and it’s damn good. A nice showing of black metal with touches of Viking, progressive, a little bit of death, and symphonic black metal. If you’ve never heard Old Corpse Road, check them out.
8 out of 10.

Old Corpse Road on MySpace.