Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Death Metal

Label: Comatose Music

Let’s get this right out of the way: Yes. James Lee is the vocalist for this band. And no, Face Of Oblivion is not an Origin clone. Why would it be since James is the vocalist and doesn’t oversee the songwriting on that level? Geez. The things you have to do to keep the stupid question from rolling on in…

And since I’m being frank, I’ll just come out and say this too: Face Of Oblivion plays death metal that’s so generic that it’s almost physically painful to think about. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good death metal. It gets the blood flowing and the head a-bangin’, but it’s also just so bland and the sense of metal deja vu hits you so hard that you’ll undoubtedly be done with it after you get about four tracks (which are honestly the best tracks in the album).

Yeah, James Lee does his thing with extreme prejudice and that’s great and all… but goddamn it, man cannot mosh on vocals alone! As far as the guitars go, there are some pretty good, albeit short solos, but there’s not a whole lot in between them. Most of the riffs are either recycled, inverted and/or repeated ad nauseum. So, not a lot of hope in that department. However, the drumming is pretty damned impressive with enough rolls to feed a nation and then you could turn around and destroy it with the atomic blast beats that plow though the whole album.

Lyrically… fuck. Do you even really need me to tell you? Standard death metal bravado with those tired “beaten and bloodied” themes. Drowned In Blood. The Dissection. Torture Harvest. Etc… The Embers Of Man is a negative zone for originality.

Overall: The Embers Of Man is a serviceable album. It gets the job done if you’re in some sort of a jam where there are absolutely zero death metal or death metal-like albums to be found and you MUST listen to some good ol’ DM or else the world will end or something. I’ll still be holding on to my copy of The Embers Of Man, but that’s just in case an end of the world scenario does pop up…

6/10

Face Of Oblivion On ReverbNation

Face Of Oblivion On Facebook

I imagine the lineup for this tour is probably something of a wet dream for anyone especially captivated with blastbeat-laden modern. For me, not so much, though I do adore classic Vital Remains such as “Let Us Pray” and “Into Cold Darkness”. I arrived late, and missed the local openers Gravenloch and Tunsafun, so I was greeted with Abysmal Dawn’s soundcheck as I walked through the door. This was my second time seeing these rising stars of Los Angeles death metal, and frankly I was not impressed with their performance in March supporting Atheist. This time around was a different story. I don’t know if it was due to better sound, my state of mind, or an improvement in the last few months on the band’s part, but their set was definitely fun to headbang through, featuring signature thinking man’s death metal tracks such as “My Own Savior” and “Leveling The Plane of Existence”.

Next to hit the stage were Providence, Rhode Island (hence their clever catch phrase, “We Are Providence”, hardy har har) death metal veterans Vital Remains. I was right up against the stage, and I tried to talk to guitarist Tony Lazaro during while the band set up, urging him to play the 90′s Vital Remains anthem “War In Paradise”, but the bastard refused to make eye contact with me! Nonetheless, I was excited until the band ordered a sound guy to crank a sample of their music to the same volume as their instruments. This was a bit off putting. Last time VR was in town, they quit after two songs because their sampler wasn’t working. I assumed it was only used for intro and outro samples, sound effects, etc. Surely Vital Remains cannot mean to engage in some kind of death metal lip sync? They finally began with “Icons of Evil”, segwaying into highlights “Hammer Down The Nails” and “Dechristianize”, playing exclusively songs from their two most recent albums. A mediocre performance overall, no matter how much I wanted to enjoy it.

Last was Hate Eternal, current project of Ripping Corpse/Morbid Angel alumni Erik Rutan. Their set was rife with problems. The sound was shit, featuring triggered drums far louder than anything else, and a muddy, ugly guitar sound. However, they seemed to be the crowd favorite, and the security had no choice but to relent to numerous rule breaking stage divers and a vicious pit. At one point,  a stage diver accidentally pulled the cable out of Rutan’s guitar, but he fluidly reconnected it without allowing the mishap to interrupt his performance. Then, someone in the audience threw an unidentified projectile at Mr. Rutan, causing him to stop playing to deathgrowl “GET THE FUCK OUT MOTHERFUCKER!” and “I’LL FUCKING SEE YOU OUTSIDE MOTHERFUCKER!” over the microphone. The humorous altercation did a little to make up for their atrocious set, but didn’t do anything to sway me in favor of Hate Eternal’s music. I’ll stick to “Dreaming With The Dead”.

Origin was also playing, headlining actually, but I’m not partial to tech-death, and after the disappointment of the last two bands I elected to leave and socialiaze with my metal brohort. Overall, Abysmal Dawn was the best band of the evening, and the only enjoyable set, surprised as I am to hear myself say that. A shame that heavyweights like Vital Remains and Hate Eternal couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver, but the younger blood definitely blew them out of the water.

Genres: Progressive Death Metal, Technical Death Metal
Label: Willowtip

In the span of forty-five minutes and forty-one seconds Gigan not only push their own envelope, but the envelopes of pretty much all of technical and progressive death metal bands.
A mindblowing (fuck bending, it’s outright gone) adventure through the cosmos as only these Chicago natives can do, Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes is perfect for many reasons, most notably that you can hear it in the background, driving, or you can listen to it, with headphones and a darkened room. It’s not a one-way road with Gigan, it’s a multi-lane highway of listening choices.
It’s also perfect because it’s just a solid fucking album. Sure, it’s prog and tech, but it’s also got songs in it, which is what ultimately makes or breaks an album. If you have no songs, just a bunch of wankery, that’s all you have. If you, like Gigan, have songs, you have albums, fans, and the thing that keeps you in the music business, sales.
Which brings me to my final point. This is gonna be on colored vinyl, as well as CD. So don’t be an ass, and buy this album. I ordered the vinyl before I even heard the promo tracks.
10 out of 10.

Gigan on Facebook.
Gigan on Myspace.

Genres: Progressive Metal, Technical Death Metal
Label: Season of Mist

Metalgasm! Straight up, pure, unadulterated, and unfuckwithable eargasmic metal right here. I can’t stop listening to Traced in Air, an album I bought because I heard Cynic were pretty damn good and the tag on the album was Technical Death Metal. I thought I was buying an Origin- or Cryptopsy-like CD, but what came out was definitely not like either of those bands.
Instead, it reminded me right off the bat as Tool, but then the second listen brought in Deftones and Coheed and Cambria. And once I heard the Coheed-like elements, the Rush comparison was instant. And King Crimson. This is a wonderful, perfect album, a little on the short side (all of the best CDs are too damn short, aren’t they?) but still perfect.
It takes you on a mood swing ride, but unlike most death metal, it’s not all minor keys. Happy sounding major keys and beautiful melodies take you away on a cloud and drop you into a headbang session, then pick you back up again, just to smash your mind against the rocks of what you thought proggy tech-death could be.
If you don’t own this album, you are missing out on something so wonderful. Please, go to a store and pick this CD up.
10 out of 10.

Cynic on MySpace.

Enemy Reign will perform in Cheyenne, Wyoming at The Atlas Theatre supporting Deadspeak on February 26, 2010. In April, the band will appear on the 2010 edition of the Neurotic Deathfest featuring Bolt Thrower, Carcass, Dying Fetus, Insision, Lock Up, Napalm Death and Origin (among many others), followed by a tour throughout Europe. Confirmed dates thus far include:

4/30/2010 The Neurotic Deathfest – Tilburg, Netherlands
5/08/2010 SAS -Delemont, Switzerland
5/12/2010 Abaton – Prague, Czech Republic w/Bolt Thrower, Rotting Christ & Dew Scented
5/15/2010 AJZ – Bahndamm, Germany [http://www.ajzbahndamm.de]

The band will release Means To A Dead End in Europe through Neurotic Records on April 5th. The EP was recorded by Dave Otero at Flatline Audio (Cephalic Carnage, Martriden, Cobalt et al) in 2008 and, until now, self-distributed through the ENEMY REIGN online webstore. The European version will contain one newly recorded exclusive bonus track entitled “If The Truth Hurts…Suffer,” as well as exclusive art work and other bonus materials.