Funeral Rain Press Corps

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.

Genres: Deathcore, Melodic Death Metal, Technical Death Metal
Label: Century Media

Never afraid to be pioneers in death metal, Cryptopsy pretty much creates a new subgenre with this release. When I bought the CD I was more or less expecting Once Was Not II. And it kind of seemed that was going to happen at the start of the album, just with a different singer. And keyboards.
Then the new singer began to sing. With a very nice voice. And it was not forced at all, like too many metalcore bands. It fits the songs, and quite frankly, it kicks ass.
Sorry haters. I know some people are gonna start reading this and say to themselves “Fuck yeah, this guy is gonna bash those sellouts!” No. Not me. I don’t share many people’s views on this album as it being Cryptopsy’s sellout album. I see it as Cryptopsy’s logical growth album.
They’ve done pretty much everything there is to do in death metal, so why not do the one thing they haven’t done? And, while they are at it, show that they are still better than 99% of the people who do this type of thing already? Think about it folks. If they didn’t make this album, and make it better than anyone else could, they would not be leaders in death metal. They would not be The Unspoken King. 9 out of 10.

Genres: Technical Death Metal
Label: Century Media

Beginning with one of the prettiest songs I’ve ever heard as an intro (“Luminium”), a gorgeous classical guitar strums slowly, gradually picking up speed, making you relax yet expectant at the same time while some keys in the background add a bit of ambience.
Then suddenly you get transported into hell itself (“In the Kingdom Where Everything Dies, the Sky Is Mortal”). A crushing, doomy riff hits then gives way to Flo Mournier’s sick drumming, super brutal guitars, and a Metalgasmic scream from Lord Worm at 1:03 heralds the intense destruction of all you thought death metal could be. Beyond technical, the whole album is one giant mindfuck for the uninitiated.
This CD is fuck near perfect, 9 out of 10.

Genres: Deathcore, Metalcore, Technical Death
Label: Sumerian Records

Progressive death metal. Death core. Tech-death. Whatever you call them, one thing is for sure: Born Of Osiris is where it’s at when you want crazy song structuring. A Higher Place is Born Of Osiris’s (I refuse to refer to them as BOO) sophomore album and thankfully, it avoids the myriad of sophomoric mistakes that lots of younger bands tend to make. Instead, Born Of Osiris take a familiar, yet fresh approach (for them) by adding several (technically) melodic twists to their songs. The vocals never go clean, and they never needed too anyway. They bounce from the main vocalist to the key-man, harsh metalcore screams (which sound a little too close to Mark Hunter’s from Chimaira) to deeeep death metal growls with seamless transitions. The dual guitar scheme is just as tight as ever and take the newer melodic tones to dizzying heights (“Put To Rest” and “Elimination” are key examples of what I’m saying). The technical drumming however has taken a bit of a break in place of a more simple (metronomic), yet catchy beat provider. Overall, A Higher Place may not seem like one to rabid lovers of The New Reign, but I think A Higher Place works for them.

8/10

Born Of Osiris On MySpace

Originally posted at E-MetalSpace

Techy Californian grindcorists EMBRYONIC DEVOURMENT have announced dates for a spring tour in support of their second album, ‘Vivid Interpretations of the Void,’ which they expect to be released at the end of March. The initial touring bout takes them through the U.S. — including Las Vegas Death Fest on July 16-17 and Central Illinois Metal Fest, July 24 — and into Mexico. It was during a trip to Mexico in 2006 that Embryonic Devourment played one of their best shows ever, singer/bassist Austin Spence tells Noisecreep. But they also found out that the true price of fame is about $200.

“Last time we went down there, our guitar player almost got arrested, so we’re actually a little scared of going there,” says Spence. “We can’t speak the language, and we were going to the venue and all we had was a flyer with the address on it.” They enlisted the help of a cab driver, and drummer Luke Boutiette hopped in the cab. Then the rest of the band, which also numbers co-guitarists Lauren Pike and Adam Weber, followed in the van.

“As soon as we pulled up at the venue, three cops pulled up and started searching us. They found a tiny pocketknife on our guitarist and pulled him aside. They came up to me and said, ‘Okay you’re friend is going to jail for a really long time’. We were like, ‘What? You’re crazy!’”

Boutiette, however, called it for the shakedown it was and pulled out $200 from his shoe, giving it to the cop. He said, “They were like, ‘Oh, OK. Have a nice day.’ I think the taxi driver was in on it, too. Then, after all was said and done, the cop tried to give us back the pocketknife. We were like, ‘No way!’”

But all’s well that ends well: “The show was great. There was a big billboard outside the venue with our logo on it. The crowd was wild, the mosh pit was like a hill with people crawling over each other. Crazy.”