industrial rock / metal

This is a nice return into my attention span. I've known Kaos Crew since their 2006 album 'Devour' but my temporary absence from the metal scene made me lose track of them. I didn't even know that they were still active, but I'm glad they are and I'm really enjoying this new album.

Influenced by the likes of Pain, Rammstein and Clawfinger, Finnish industrial metal act Kaos Krew came to life in 2004. With 'Returno', the band delivers its fourth album, faithfully following the path they have chosen. That path contains heaps of old school heavy metal riffs and a plethora of electronics. 

With that being said, in a way it feels like Kaos Krew have been toning down on the electronics. Of course, you can still find the typical crossover sound in songs like opener 'End My Pride' but 'Man Down' and 'Dying To Survive' sound like good old fashioned headbanging tunes, which is not a bad thing, obviously. 'When Soldiers Cry' goes heavier on the synths, adding some kind of gothic atmosphere to the whole thing. Perhaps it's safe to say that this is my favorite track as it comes quite close to what Samael does.

Another band that often comes to mind, is Die Krupps. I guess that is another compliment for Kaos Krew. And let's not forget about Oomph. It's clear that over the years, Kaos Krew have mastered their art, something they gladly showcase in a stomper like 'Crippled By Belief'. Fans of industrial rock and metal, fans of crossover goodness can trust Kaos Krew to deliver the goods, the riffs and the groove. So yeah, this thing comes recommended. 


Serge

progressive / post metal

black metal / doom

electronic / coldwave

heavy metal versions of eighties hits

progressive / psychedelic rock

noise rock / industrial

noise rock / sludge

stoner rock / psychedelic rock

death metal

alternative rock

alternative rock / dream pop

indie rock / alternative

death metal

death metal

death metal / black metal

ambient

alternative rock / grunge / stoner rock

heavy metal

facebook

doom / drone / black metal

post rock / progressive rock

dark ambient

black metal

post hardcore

drone / dark ambient

doom / post rock

death metal / punk 

doom / sludge 

hardcore / metal

experimental / ambient / noise

bandcamp

funeral doom

black metal

speed metal / black metal

bandcamp

death metal / grindcore

techno / rave / house

techno

Serge

metal / alternative rock

Somewhere between the heavier side of alternative rock and the melodic side of metal and hardcore, we find French band Dementia and their hard hitting debut full-length 'Persona'. With fourteen tracks and fortyfive minutes long, this is a full blown rock album that will certainly get you on your feet, if you're a fan of heavy rock, that is. Because that is exactly what you get on this album. It's not easy to explain, although most of what I hear sounds familiar. Dementia continuously balances on the thin edge between different rock genres and still managed to create a coherent sounding album.

The biography and info page on facebook mentioned bands like Foo Fighters, Alter Bridge, Papa Roach, Thrice, Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine, to name a few. But, apart from the sheer energy of Foo Fighters, it's not really these bands that first come to mind. The first band I thought of while listening to songs like 'Speedball' and the brilliant 'Too Long', was none other than Evergrey, quickly followed by some other melodic metal bands. These guys just might have unknowingly entered the world of dark metal, which is just as good for me.

Here and there some hardcore and metalcore influences seem to surface, including the brutal vocals. Personally, I prefer the clean vocals, as they fit this music extremely well. Dementia are blessed with a talented vocalist who does not to scream to convince. Give these guys a stage on any big metal festival and they will win over a lot of metal hearts. I mean, I'm already thinking about removing the "alternative rock" tag above this review. In my opinion, this is dark melodic metal, and one from a very high quality too.

What I know for sure, is that this is going right into my heavy playlist where it will accompany the aforementioned Evergrey, plus Nevermore, Pain of Salvation, Savatage, Katatonia and many more. This is certainly a talented band, perhaps still searching for  the perfect sound but nonetheless interesting. I for one am curious about the future direction of this band but for now, I recommend this album to all you dark and melodic rockers out there. This one definitely rocks!!!


​Serge

progressive metal / alternative / avant-garde

Interesting and intriguing, Finestatico, released by In Tormentata Quiete, an impressively creative avant-garde metal act from Italy, has seven tracks: Zero, Sole, R136a1, Eta Carinae, Sirio, RR Lyrae and Demiurgo. Displaying wisely a dense, but functional and harmoniously abrasive, vast and dispersive diagram of symphonic and folk elements, In Tormentata Quiete is deeply entrenched – and to a certain degree, indebted – to the traditional groundwork of another Italian bands of the genre, being Lacuna Coil probably the most notorious of them all; so to a certain degree, the reference – and possible comparisons, favorable or unfavorable – is inevitable. Nevertheless, their songs are, to a modest degree, beautiful, the harmonies are cohesive, and they know how to carry on firmly the musical tradition upon which their music is profoundly engraved.  

Despite the lack of originality and major attractive features, Finestatico is an album that inadvertently has its beauty. Unfortunately, in a general sonorous layer, the group isn’t able to avoid the usual generic elements that also normally victimize other acts in the genre, which are mainly too exacerbated sentimental melodies, in a sequence sometimes exceedingly predictable, and way too demagogic symphonic common ground ordeals. But neither of these negative aspects – that are not that afflictive, some would qualify as smaller infractions at best – are enough to compromise the structural integrity and the genuinely stylish poetic serenity of In Tormentata Quiete’s music, which are quite beautiful and abundantly captivating, at certain specific passages. 

The fourth track – Eta Carinae – is one of the most effective and brilliant in the whole album. A beautiful and poetic song, it reflects the musical principles upon which the visceral and energized musicality of the band seems to rely on: a rudimentary, but at the same time increasingly sophisticated rhythmic axis of sentimental intonation, that revolves around the precious possibilities that vehemently reinvents their capacities, to a strikingly original point of artistic rupture.    

Although I cannot qualify this album as a masterpiece, Finestatico has its share of great moments, and can be considered an expressively satisfying musical experiment. Unfortunately, they rely too consistently and too repeatedly on specific and generic structural formulas, that were already exhaustively used by other acts of the genre. So, Finestatico would hardly be a surprise to someone who is profoundly familiar with the genre.    


Wagner

ambient / experimental

ambient / electronic / downtempo

doom / sludge metal

ambient / classical

punk / antifolk

progressive metal

death metal / industrial

black metal

shoegaze / alternative rock / dark rock

facebook

ambient / downtempo

electronic / techno / experimental

Hypermedium

black metal

drone / ambient / minimal

noise

techno

post hardcore

viking metal / progressive metal

A fantastic and tremendously magnificent album to be released on September 1st by Downfall records, From North is the self-titled debut of the eponymous Swedish avant-garde metal group, that enters the underground scene in a marvelously aggrandizing and effective style. With eleven tracks – Volund The Smith, He Who Hates, Last Appeal, Ships Tale, Mead Of Poetry, Sworn Brotherhood, The Sacred Oath, Ormr Inn Langi, The Catch, The Longest Wait and From North –, this wonderful debut defies the norms and patterns usually applied to alternative metal, in favor of a more authorial and organic sonorous conception. Already in the first track, Volund The Smith, the listener is savagely, but spiritually introduced to a divine state of splendorous glory, where a brutal, but sophisticated musicality conceives an everlasting twilight of stone that draws the line of a genuine and accurately precise axiom of artistry. This grandiloquent atmosphere of an omnipotent parallel reality rapidly follows in the second track, He Who Hates, with a monumental melody that furiously dissipates the diagram of a sound impulse rotated by a diluted, but explicit viking ferocity. And this marvelous greatness continues intact until the final track. 


With ferocious, but whimsically dilapidated guitar lines, and almost clean vocals – although incisively strong and harsh at certain passages –, From North is an exceedingly genuine band. With a style impossible to properly define or categorize, they wisely reunite and easily compress in a wonderful sonorous galaxy of creation several astute and intelligent elements from a lot of different musical genres: from hard rock to progressive metal, from alternative rock to speed metal, going through avant-garde, power and post metal as well, with occasional viking, folk and symphonic arrangements, From North is a pluralistic cosmogony of excellent  musical eclecticism, that keeps on their audacious and virtuous authenticity the greatest formula for sensational creative abilities that has potential to highlight the band as a rising and prosperous act in the underground scene.

Exceedingly versatile and flexible, the strong musicality of the group takes the virulence of sonorous ascendancy to another level: with a melancholic icy poetry that rapidly shifts from a solitary, but aggressively reflexive rapture, From North comes to explode the musical possibilities to the highest degree, and explore all sonorous possibilities to a maximum, pursuing a perfect degree of artistry dying to be properly appreciated and recognized. 

One song in particular, The Sacred Oath –, a camp folk ballad that warms the soul and heats the heart –, is a majestically monumental and sensible poetic anthem of faith, hope and tenderness, profoundly humane, protective and paternal, that calms the spirit, and sets the world into an ecstatic moment of reflection. A song that sings the everlasting quest of human beings for interior serenity, you instantly envisions in your mind a night around a bonfire in a camping site with close friends, with the eternal forest fulfilled by snow in the background. Although the entire album is gracefully fabulous and beautiful, this track is certainly my favorite. One of the most wonderful songs that I’ve heard in my entire life!

With absolutely anything to be criticized negatively about this album – on the contrary, I would massively suffer from the lack of adjectives to qualify this imponderable and masterful work –, From North rises from the distant icy landscapes of Sweden to defy the perceptions of our musical horizons, with their creatively exceptional and unconventional harmonies. I would love to wish them luck in their career, but they don’t need it! Their astounding beginning can be described in just one word: P-E-R-F-E-C-T!   
  

Wagner

doom / gothic metal

Yesterday, I was at a friend's house, drinking Irish coffee and talking about music. The subject was differences in quality between classic albums and modern day attempts. Every musical genre has its classic, must-have albums, released years or decades ago. My friend claimed that modern day albums rarely, if ever, reach the overall quality of those old favorites. I respectfully disagreed, mostly because I know that people define their opinion on "classic, genre defining albums" around their 16th year. Everything that comes after that, is usually new stuff, not to be adored as much as the so-called pioneers. It's just how our brain works.

In my opinion, there are loads of classic albums out there. The old bands just forgot to write and record them, which leaves that possibility open to other ones.  Of course, as a music reviewer I have actually encountered several of them. I think I have uttered the phrase "if this album was recorded in (insert year), this album might by now be a classic in the genre" many times before and I am going to have to use it again.

Polish gothic doom act Medebor takes us right back to the nineties. Founded in 1997, these guys obviously know their classics. Paradise Lost, Type O Negative, Tiamat, Moonspell, My Dying Bride, Anathema, November's Doom, Amorphis.... I too have heard them all, I've seen them all live and I recognize their influences in this epic album. In short: 'Dark Eternal' can easily stand right next to your favorite melodic doom albums.

The album opens with a strange, spoken word intro which lasts for a while before the guitars eventually kick in. But when they do, they immediately place themselves among the aforementioned giants in this genre. Melodic doom metal with both grunts and clean vocals, while the guitars and drums create a dark but immersive atmosphere. It's pretty much everything we loved so much back in the days.

I'm not sure which my favorite songs on this album are. I absolutely love the opener 'Forest Of Deranged' and the lingering doomer 'Never To Be Forgotten' but pretty much all the song carry the same quality, the same atmosphere and the same doom metal delight. In all, I can only recommend this beast to all you doomers out there, especially the ones who are nostalgic for that nineties era. Medebor will not disappoint you, that's a fact.


Serge

gothic / doom / metal / darkwave

A beautiful album with nine tracks, The Sad Wonder Of The Sun is best described as a dense, profound and renitent poetic quest for exceedingly perfect and pure melodies, constantly flirting with the light winds of an everlasting spring, flowing through a mosaic of surreal elevated majesty. The colorful and bright  harmonious waves of Ecnephias, brilliantly mixing a very peculiar kind of soft gothic rock with a brave, intoxicating and marvelously melancholic, but smoothly melodic type of dark wave, inebriates the listener with an amazingly singular style of music, that infuses into an obscure realm of dreaming divinities the preordained sense of an oblique grandiosity, that engraves in their music the uniqueness of a symphony destined to shape in the world a more sensible and gentle perpetual twilight of comprehension and lucidity. 

With a marvelously peculiar style that draws the strength of its inspirations from the sensible fugacity of an everlasting horizon of stone, Ecnephias merges a remarkable perception of profoundly poetic gothic aspirations with a more melancholic and melodic form of dark rock. The final result is a smooth, incisive, intense, dense and vigorously alternative sensible somber rock, that greatly uses gratifyingly delicate and expressively sensible harmonies to indulge their sonorous ambitions into a higher axis of literal rapture and commotion. Unfortunately, despite the ardently ascendant and formidable artistic sagacity of their music, Ecnephias sometimes gets too close to pop music and synthpop. Of course, not to the point of compromising the beauty of their art; nevertheless, some passages seem too overtly “happy”, indulging in what almost appears to be cabaret music.    

Evidently, I completely understand the diversity, the uniqueness, the audacity and the experimentalism of their style – something which gets specially obvious in the fifth track –; Ecnephias is not just another band, let alone be qualified as an ordinary rock group. They are a melodic art act, and no ordinary label literally applies to them. This is something you really have to understand before listening to them. With Ecnephias, there is no ordinary music. Not at all. Labeling or categorizing them is not just extremely difficult: it’s impossible. 

If there is a band capable of changing the entire scenario of the underground scene nowadays, and provoke a really consistent artistic, stylistic and sonorous evolution, this band is Ecnephias. Although I can’t really categorize The Sad Wonder Of The Sun as a masterpiece, there are songs on this album – like Povo De Santo and Nouvelle Orleans – that will literally blow your mind away. Fantastic symphonies of marvelously exponential beauty, if you like avant-garde metal, experimental music, or something completely out of the ordinary, you have to listen to this album. It is totally different from everything you’ve heard before. Be sure about that!   
  

Wagner

When I started these Brieviews series over a year ago, the initial idea is to empty my inbox by writing shorter reviews for EP's, reissues, singles and a few full length albums. Back then, I was talking about 900 unread emails. That amount has tripled since then and we're already at part 25. That's a lot of short reviews if you ask me. Anyway, here are some more Brieviews for your reading and listening enjoyment. 

dark ambient

heavy metal

black metal / thrash metal

post rock

drone / dark ambient

bandcamp

stoner rock / hard rock

gothic metal / symphonic metal

black metal

Larval Productions

post punk / gothic rock

grindcore

Serge