War Gods of the Deep-Monsters, Magic & Mayhem

Self-Release/Independent
2016

It's not very often that you get a promo request from a band that is named after a Vincent Price movie. Let alone one whose goal in life is to sound like "80's Motley Crue & Metallica had a baby and let David Lee Roth, Gene Simmons and Glenn Danzing babysit it"! To say I was left somewhat bewildered by all of that is the understatement of the century, but maybe that's just the way that War Gods of the Deep rolls? That was actually my mindset during the brief moment in time between looking at this request and actually listening to it.
The question now is did this hard rock/heavy metal band live up to it's vivid description on their (relativity new) debut EP? If I'm to be perfectly honest here (and why shouldn't I be?) then the answer is no. More than anything the (rather short) "Monsters, Magic & Mayhem" sounds like Black-era Metallica meets modern hard rock/heavy metal. Now, before anyone gets all worked up about that let me just make one thing perfectly clear: War Gods of the Deep's three song debut works. In fact not only does it work, but it's a better recording for what it actually is as opposed to what it purports to be. Imagine that! For any kids out there that might be reading this (even if it's only my two teens) there is a lesson to be learned from that. Just like in real life it's always better to be true to yourself.....

Moth's Circle Flight-My Entropy

Logic(Il)logic
2016

Originally formed back in 2003*, Moth's Circle Flight is a heavy & melodic 6-piece metal band that hails from Parma, Italy and has two EPs and two full-length albums to it's name. Just released back on March 1st, "My Entropy" is the band's second full-length album and it combines elements of groove metal, metalcore, modern metal, nu metal and extreme metal. The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Luca Cocconi and Simone Sigghinolfi at Audiocore Studios in Fontevivo, Parma and it features a line-up that is composed of four musicians and two lead singers! Rhythm guitarist Francesco "Baldo" Baldi, lead guitarist Luca "Pellach" Alzapiedi, bassist Marco "Satir" Reggiani, and drummer Fabio "Bersa" Bersani make up the musical side of Moth's Circle Flight while lead singers Gabriele "Gabbo" Rosi & Simone "Pancio" Panciroli provide both harsh and clean vocals. Musically, vocally and lyrically tight, Moth’s Circle Flight is damn near solid gold on "My Entropy" and from it's overall production to the actual delivery of the individual songs everything seems to be in order on this HEAVY release. If I was to grade this CD it would get a A- or if you will a 8 out of 10. The only reason it doesn't get a perfect score is because a few songs sound rather similar. It's such a small issue and you can blame that on the metalcore aspect of this Italian band if you want. Even so it is what it is and if this ambitious band is to continuing growing it should be addressed. Has it kept me from listening to this CD a few times through in the past week? Hell no! It's not even close to being a big deal and it hasn't kept me from PUMPING this one up as loud as it fucking goes! Chances are you'll want to do the same thing. Especially if you are a fan of any of the following band's that helped shaped the sound and style of this ambitious metal band. A few of those groups would be Pantera, Parkway Drive, Caliban, Sevendust, Killswitch Engage, Drowning Pool, Mnemic, Trivium, and Diecast. The thing is those are just influences and at the end of the day this Italian metal band marches to the beat of it's own drummer... 





*Moth’s Circle Flight suffered through a few false starts and the obligatory line-up change or two before finally coming into it's own in 2012. If I'm to go by the sounds of their new album here then it would certainly seem as if those trials and tribulations helped shape this band into something special. Even though the group does have some room to grow, "My Entropy" is the product of a strong and confident act that has been polished to near perfection. If this band can get rid of a few bad habits (the monotonous nature of metalcore being a big one!) then they could sure be onto something....

Druknroll-In The Game

Metal Scrap Records
2016

"In The Game" is the fourth full-length album from Russia's one and only Druknroll. It follows the 2015 EP, "Петля мироздания" ("The Loop Of World Creation") and this 44 minute release features 10 distinct tracks from group-founder Andrey "Druknroll" (guitar, bass, and keys) and company. Starting off strong thanks to forceful opener "The Wolf" (official video ), "In The Game" snakes it's way through a hazard-filled landscape where everything from heavy metal-flavored harsh thrash to melodic death metal just lays there waiting for the perfect chance to spring out and strike you dead! Having previously covered this Saratov-based band back in late April of 2014 (link) I feel somewhat comfortable in saying that style-wise not much has changed for this colorful lot. Of course by that I mean there really is no one true style for this modern metal that has been in existence since 2006. Like it's unique moniker, Druknroll does things however it sees fit and that isn't necessarily a track by track affair, but during the course of a single song! To be fair it doesn't always work as things can and sometimes do become chaotic. That's the danger of trying to put too many ideas into a single song. It's a small danger, but a danger nonetheless. But, what's life without a little danger now and then? It's boring. Thankfully that's not a problem with "In The Game". Above all else it's never boring! Chaotic? Perhaps. But boring? No way! At it's core an album like "In The Game" is geared towards those who like their modern metal to be interesting and maybe even a little bit genre-jumbled. In that essence it works and it makes me wonder what more this band is capable of now that they are more familiar with the English language?

Mellevon-Solace

Self-Release/Independent
2014

Recorded and produced by band-member April Hutchins at Muffin Studios in Montreal, Quebec, "Solace" is the second full-length recording from Canada's Mellevon. It was released at the tail end of 2014 and this fourteen track album serves as the follow-up to the group's 2013 debut album, "Chaos Reigns". With a run-time that is over the fifty minute mark(!), "Solace" features two (short) instrumental numbers in "A Song for the Setting Sun" and the album's title track and this new recording finds Mellevon sporting a new look. One-time (harsh) vocalist Gabriel Tulli has been replaced by Red Skull and new drummer Colin MacAndrew (The Wild Hunt) takes over for the departed Jermeel Chase. As for everyone else? Well, seeing as she is responsible for most of the music and lyrics on "Solace" (as well as the album's concrete production job) special props should go to guitarist April Hutchins. As one of the original members of this Montreal-based band, April Hutchins excels in each department that she has a hand in (musician, songwriter and producer) and on "Solace" her guitar playing is absolutely sick! While this five-piece band (reportedly) started out as a Industrial/Nu-metal act you'd never know that by April's performances on "Solace" as her work is well-drawn out and meticulous in it's complexity! Even so her riffs are crisp and sharp and when stacked up against the jagged nature of some of this album's material they offer up a glorious wall of sound! April's guitar skills are the album's true highlight and they help make each and every track on "Solace" somewhat different. For the album's full line-up (and to see the guest list for "Solace") be sure to check below this review. Otherwise we're looking at a one-time(?) Industrial/Nu-metal band that has apparently turned the corner and is now (more or less) a hybrid/modern metal band. Sure, there's still a bit of industrial metal going on here, but it's been maxed out by way of melodic death metal (hence the band's own Industrial Melodic Death Metal tag) and a long-list of sub-genres that range from dark metal to goth metal to even (light) symphonic metal! The album's cool mash-up of styles helps make for a more interesting listening experience all-around. And for the most part so do the clean and harsh vocals. I might have sorted out the harsh vocals a tad more (maybe it's the mix, but from time to time the death metal growls sound....well, off kilter I guess), but they are good all the same. And that really goes for each member/part of Mellevon. Everyone does their thing and they do it well. But, if I had to pick one other thing that stood out about Mellevon's latest (besides the stellar guitar parts that rule on "Solace"!) it would be the keyboards. They come courtesy of Chel Vorsteher and they help give "Solace" a nice after-shine. They range from classy to somewhat electronic and they add that extra exclamation point to the whole affair! All in all I found "Solace" to be a solid listening experience. As with a lot of up-and-coming bands these days there are a few things that could be touched-up, but overall this is a good band that sure sounds as if they could be REALLY good in no time at all. Even if you don't pick up Mellevon's latest album I'd sure as hell keep an eye on them as this is one Canadian band that has "HUGE POTENTIAL" written all over them!!!!
 


Mellevon is:
Red Skull: Lead vocals, clean vocals
April Hutchins: Guitars, vocals and spoken word .
Chel Vorsteher: Keyboards, clean vocals .
Stefan Guaiani: Bass, harsh vocals .
Colin MacAndrew : Drums, harsh vocals


Guest Performers:
Björn Strid (Soilwork): Vocals on "The Quiet Light".
Les Godfrey (ex-Tchort, ex-The Illuminati): Guitar solo on "Under Moss".
Kyle Lapointe (The Renaissance Men): Spoken word intro on "Sonically Transmitted Dysphoria".
Melanie Hutchins: Vocal harmonies on "Left Behind".

We Butter The Bread With Butter-Wieder Geil!

AFM Records
2015

My kids had a real hard time believing that a band like this existed. Maybe you will too. And yet it's all too true. Yes, Virginia, this is a real band.  And yes, Virginia, that really is the band's name. The way I see it things would only be crazier if their name was We Butter Our Butter With Butter. Otherwise this is about as odd as it gets when it comes to (metal) band monikers. Then again this is a odd band. Or better yet, this is a odd band with a odd take on synthesized metal. Founded in 2007 by songwriter, guitarist and producer Marcel Neumann, We Butter The Bread With Butter is a German four-piece whose mission in life seems to be striking the perfect balance between synthetic sounds and samples and real instruments. Need a description? How does industrial metalcore strike you? Maybe electronic modern metal would be better tag? Or perhaps digital deathcore? Whatever the case might be, "Wieder Geil!" is the latest release from We Butter The Bread With Butter (WBTBWB) and two things are certain. And that would be A) "Wieder Geil!" has been digitally enhanced by tools of the trade in order to give it synthetic vibe and B) "Wieder Geil!" is over-the-top LOUD METAL that is closer to heavy thrash/death than hard rock. I guess you could add one other point to this album. "Wieder Geil!" might be crazy, but it's a good kind of crazy. And it's not just the actual music either as the same thing can be said of lead singer Paul Bartzsch! His crazy antics and huge vocal range help top things off all of which makes "Wieder Geil!" one of those albums where you feeling like screaming "What a rush!" at the top of your lungs! Especially when you're out and about just cruising your life away and this album is cranked up as far as it will go! Just be sure to keep one eye out for the cops while you're doing it because "Wieder Geil!" will  make you want to slam it down and SPEED! So, even if this band's weird name gave me reason to pause their metal-minded music never once did. Therefore I'm giving  "Wieder Geil!" my stamp of approval and until we meet again, spin this one right round baby right round!

Grenouer-Unwanted Today

Mausoleum Records
2015

Due to drop on March 20th, "Unwanted Today" is the eighth full-length album from long-standing band Grenouer. That's not even taking into account the various demos, EPs, odd single and splits that this four-piece outfit has released since first forming way back in 1992. How that makes this band a "New breath of modern rock-metal from Saint Petersburg, Russia" then is beyond me! As odd as a opening/rant as that might be those are the exact words that open up Grenouer's promo for album number eight so it does seem a bit strange to toss out a word like "new" in regards to a band that first formed when I was still in high school! Maybe just maybe this Saint Petersburg band, with their Dualized (Mnemic, Voodoo Highway, Travis Cold) -produced new 13-track album here, is talking about their latest style as the Metal Archives has them taking the leap from thrash/death metal early on to industrial metal before finally landing squarely on rock/metal map that stands before us? If so that would make a bit more sense as (frankly-speaking here friends) that seems to be a trend for quite a few of Russia's more long-standing acts. The pogoing from one genre to another that is! Which brings us all the way back around to the latest "styling and profiling" sound that is Grenouer. Let's have more of the promo material if we can as the following statement is actually more telling about this band's latest LP. "The vocals reminiscent of Devin Tonwsend type prog-metal, while the guitars produce radical riffs not unlike Meshuggah" we read from Lukas Hendrik over at Rock Hard Magazine and (true to form) that's as good of a start as any for "Unwanted Today". Lead singer Andrey Ind (ex-C.O.D., ex-Tartharia) does have some Devin Tonwsend going for him, but quite honestly I prefer Grenouer's front-man over his "name that vocalist influence" counterpart! The truth is Andrey has a nice range going on and he breaths life into what can often-times be a difficult form of metal to fully embrace. Modern metal like this has it's own kind of built-in audience (of which I'm admittedly not a regular attendant) and there are plenty of sales figures to back that fact up. But, while I love the emotional vibe of rock/metal like this it always feel a tad artificial to me. That's not necessarily the case with these rockers. Together with Alexander Motor (guitars), Al Bolo (bass) and Danny D (drums) our main man Andrey cuts a nice path across Russia's cold landscape with material that is warmly-inviting. When Grenouer is in deep those ill feelings I have for modern metal lighten up even if I would be hard pressed to point towards any particular stand-out numbers. Even with all the special guests that invited special guests that Grenouer invited to the party it still strikes me that much of "Unwanted Today" blurs together. For the curious those guests would be Eddy Cavazza (John Wetton, Anthony Phillips) on guitar along with vocalists such as Demian Von Dunkelwald (Overunit Machine) and Enrico "Erk" Scutti (Figure Of Six). There is even an opera singer in Dmitriy Yankovskiy (Helicon Opera, NeoClassic Project) which one would think might add a little zing to the mix. Sadly it's still just Grenouer doing their thing. So, what does all of that exactly mean in the end? Well, as an outsider looking in the album "Unwanted Today" made for a pleasant enough listening experience even if it was one which I'm not likely to indulge in ever again. For everyone else it would simply depend on how much you were into the whole rock/modern metal sound. For those who are crazy about the scene a release like "Unwanted Today" might be worth a listen. But even then it's not likely that this will be the album to push over Grenouer over the hump. Just like every other form of metal the one that Grenouer is stepping into is way over-crowded! It's takes a lot for your voice to be heard with thousands of other bands vying for attention especially when you are late to the main event to begin with! That's not to say that Grenouer cannot pick up a few more fans along the way. They likely will especially with a label like Mausoleum Records behind them. But as far as being the next big thing in modern metal? I'd take a pass on that bet friends.....

Jacobs Moor-All That Starts

Bleedingstar Records
2014

Self-produced by the band members themselves, "All That Starts" is the full-length debut album from Austrian metal act Jacobs Moor. Founded in 2010 by Richard Krenmaier (Speed Limit, ex-Stygma IV, ex-Surrender, ex-Big Heat, Della Street), Johnny Sommerer and Rainer Lidauer (ex-Far Beyond Innocence, ex-Marcin Suder), with both the studio line-up for "All That Starts" and the live line-up of this Vienna-based act listed below*, Jacobs Moor is another relatively new band whose sound and style covers many different genres. Influenced by the likes of Machine Head, Devil Driver, Leprous, Slayer, Testament, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Pantera and Lamb Of God and being the benefactors of lead singer Richard Krenmaier's all encompassing voice this Austrian stretches modern metal and progressive/melodic power /thrash metal into all kinds of unusual shapes! As dark and oppressive as the music might be at times (and also as gloomy as the band members themselves intended the art-work above to convey!) it's also strangely illuminating making "All That Starts" a record well-worth visiting from time to time. Available pretty much wherever fine music is to be found these days ( iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc), "All That Starts" is a fine start for Jacobs Moor. Especially seeing as it does the band members and the metal community as a whole proud by offering up another much-needed soundtrack for this crumbling world for which we are all to blame...

 * Jacobs Moor's studio line-up included:
   Richard Krenmaier-vocals
   Johnny Sommerer-guitars, bass (except "Faceless Man") and cellos
   Rainer Lidauer-drums

  Along with the following guests:
  Werner Taus-bass on "Faceless Man"
  Günther Maier-2nd guitar solo on "Final Sound"

  Meanwhile the live band features:
  Richard Krenmaier-vocals 

  Johannes Pichler-guitars 

  Rupert Träxler-guitars 

  Stephan Först-bass 

  Rainer Lidauer-drums

Slasher-Katharsis

Self-Release/Independent
2014  

Brazilian thrash metal? Now where have I heard that phrase before? Wasn't there that one band that used to feature the brothers Max and Igor Cavalera? Whatever became of that? All kidding aside, Slasher (who hail from Itapira, Sao Paulo and shouldn't be confused with several other metal acts that hold the same moniker) prove that there is so much more to Brazil's scene then just Sepultura. Of course most of us in the metal community already knew that, but should further proof ever be needed to persuade the naysayers just point in the general direction of this aggressive band and let the metal doing the talking for you! Active since 2008 (with "Katharsis" here serving as the second full-length studio album from this fast, frenzied and fantastically fucking furious five-piece!) Slasher (who actually bring to mind bands like Testament, Slayer and Annihilator more than Sepultura!) first made it's mark with the EP "Broken Faith". That was back in the beginning of 2009 and since then the band (with a pair of singles sandwiching the 2011 debut-album, "Pray For The Dead") has shuffled the deck some line-up wise and (going by the hellfire sounds of this Tue Madse-produced album!) emerged all the stronger! With a terrifically terrifying new lead-singer added to the line-up (Paulo Skeeter) and a pair of top-tier guitarists (Lúcio Nunes and Lucas Aldigheri) that know the ends and outs of all things awesome (technical thrash, eighties thrash, modern metal and even death thrash make up the body of work known as "Katharsis") this band could and should go far! Both albums ("Pray For The Dead" and "Katharsis") can be downloaded for free at the link below, but for a band this good you really should toss a few bucks into the coffer (if for no other reason then just so that Slasher can continue on in it's attempt to rage and pummel it's way to the top of the pile!). And really, if Slasher can keep pumping out first bangin' metal like this there's no reason to think that they will remain unsigned for that much longer! 

http://www.slasher.com.br/en/?page_id=32