power metal / speed metal

Witchlords, how more metal can a band with this name still sound? These two metal heads from Belgium, Kristof Dedene (vocals, guitars and bass) and Thomas Lambeir (drums) decided to bring their shared passion to life. In addition to the love for headbanging, they got their inspiration for this release from war and fantasy board games.

Demons In The Dark is their debut that is packed with solid power metal. The title track Demons In The Dark, their first single by the way, immediately rolled through the speakers like a roller-coaster. Powerful riffs and high metal vocals with flashy guitar solos are the trademark of Witchlords. The second song tempered our exuberance when this turned out to be a copy of Demons In The Dark. With frowned eyebrows, we had doubts about how this album would continue.

No worries. From the third song, The Horde, the duo do unfold their talents with an atmospheric intro in the style of Blut Aus Nord. Old school metal is served here, with all the possible tricks and ideas. The thunder of ferocious metal gods is assisted by the howling guitars and rattling double bass drums. We got some goosebumps moments with this song.

The heavy, growling, speed-metal-like tracks worked like a time machine that catapulted us back to the grim and old fantasy worlds. Kristof Dedene cries out his triple lung content with full passion on this 30 minutes blasting album. We are curious how he will ever be able to combine this on stage with his creative guitar playing.

Witchlords can be added to our list of Belgian metal acts like Evil Invaders and Lethal Injury. The duo  is strongly influenced by the 80s metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Helloween, Judas Priest and the legendary US metal band Metal Church. Demons In The Dark is a powerful enthusiastic edition topped with a speed metal sauce that made a strong impression despite all the cliches present. A nostalgic and joyful tear could not be suppressed from our old metal heart. 

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Patsker

ambient / classical

Sound In Silence

experimental / noise

alternative rock / psychedelic rock

death metal

post rock

ambient / classical

doom / black metal

black metal

hardcore

metal / death metal / metalcore

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metal / metalcore

While browsing through my pile of CDs to be reviewed, I found this little thing. I think it has been there for a while. I remembered when it came in. I opened the envelop and saw the CD plus the biography. I read the words "symphonic" and "metalcore" which almost caused the album to become forgotten.

Why? Well, I simply don't like metalcore and it has been ages since I listened to symphonic metal. Today the album almost literally fell into my lap while I was sorting out the CDs. I decided to give it a shot and I have to say, I am not as disappointed as I thought I would be.

The album opens with the powerful and forward pushing 'Lilith'. Immediately influences from bands like Arch Enemy, Trivium and Lacuna Coil appear. Fronted by the versatile Lola Van Loo, this Swiss band is a raging tribute to metal, certainly capable of causing most pits and crowd surfers. So far so good but the following track, 'Don't Waste Your Time' somewhat reduces the joy. Although this is not a bad song, you can hear a searching band, not yet fully convinced of their abilities. Either that, or they take the element of experimentation a bit too far.

Then again, 'Crawling In The Dirt' is a top level metal track, combining the best from Otep with the best of Arch Enemy and that is a serious compliment. It also show a bit of humor, which I think is a good thing. 'Blue Scorpion' is a cracker but also seems to drown in the planned versatility of the band. Sometimes I feel as if Chaoseum tried to adopt too many influences at once, giving the music an unnecessary complexity. In my opinion, fans will crave more tracks like the brutal 'F.T.S.' or the pummeling 'Devil's Wedding'.

'First Step To Hell' is not a bad album. In fact, it's certainly above average. The music is performed to perfection. There is plenty of power and the whole thing is varied enough to remain interesting, apart from a few missteps. What Chaoseum needs now is heaps of stage performances. If all goes well there, there is a big change for founding them on big stages in the future. In a few years, they might release a masterpiece. This CD has planted the seeds for that. There is potential, that's for sure.


​Serge

hardcore / grindcore / crust

black metal

grunge / alternative metal / progressive rock

doom

alternative rock

death metal

punk rock

bandcamp

electronic

electronic / darkwave / EBM / Industrial

shoegaze

progressive rock / progressive metal / post metal 

Fire by the Silos is an album released in the beginning of the month by British instrumental progressive metal group Toska. Sixty four minutes long, the record has nine tracks: The Herd, A Tall Order, Abomasum, Congress, Fire by the Silos, When Genghis Wakes, Ataraxy, Prayermonger and The Heard. An interesting album, that reveals a mature, proficient and very technical band, Toska doesn’t have any fears when experimenting with distinct sounds, synchronicities, cadences, dissonances and interchanging rhythms, interweaving all those elements in a very interesting musical mosaic, with a majestic degree of experimentalism that really makes them an extraordinary musical act, that definitely doesn’t know what a comfort zone is, since their main musical disposition is to disrupt them all.

With an intelligent, diverse and unconventional musical identity, that departs from exceedingly original premises, the music of Toska is bounded by audacity and opulent doses of vertical, dissolute and flexible creativity, despite the fact that their sound is prominently heavy, and they never retreat in the slightest degree the ferocious nature of their music. Nevertheless, I do think that Toska is a band that works better as a live act (but this is just speculation, I never had the privilege of seeing them playing). While their sound is powerful and full of qualities that make their style to be quite exuberant and consistent, Fire by the Silos is a very extensive album, that eventually becomes repetitive, and highly fractured by hazardous levels of predictability and monotony – although these deficiencies, in a general evaluation, doesn’t harm the album in any way –, especially when you fully acknowledge the anatomy, the dynamics and the general propensities of their musical diagram.

Despite their apparent flaws, I must say that Toska has some abrasive and coherent virtues, that definitely consolidates wisely the sensibilities of their style. With rude and tempestuous, but also expansive and serene harmonies, they advance vigorously towards experimental territory with more bravery, tenacity, cohesion and graciousness than most bands do, with a level of creativity and security that is definitely above the ordinary standards.   

But I feel they pushed some of their most organic and vital musical elements too far on this album, revealing too much of them. When the album finishes, you feel saturated, without the curiosity or the need to listen to more of their stuff. Toska has to learn to leave the audience with the “I want more” taste, that is the basic premise of conquest. Of course, this is only my personal evaluation about Fire by the Silos. But, like I wrote some lines above, I do feel that they are the type of band that simply sounds perfect in a live performance, being Toska one of those acts that are just made for live concerts, rather than records. Despite this observations, I should point it out that Fire by the Silos – regardless of minor deficiencies – is an interesting, aggressive, pungent and exhilarating record, that elaborates dispersive and severely dilacerating atmospheres, that makes universes collide, in the rapturously extreme dissonances that falls over the strenuous harmonies of their elegant and very abrasive sound, with versatile dispositions that definitely makes Toska one of the most promising acts in their genre, active nowadays in the contemporary underground scene.  


Wagner

drone / ambient

death metal / grindcore

death industrial / dark ambient

Exabyss Records

post rock / ambient / electronic

ambient / classical

funeral doom

gothic rock / alternative / metal

drone / ambient / folk

dark ambient 

alternative rock / funk rock

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indie / dreampop

industrial / electronic

Perc Trax

​Serge (2 & 3 by Patsker)

alternative / metal / metalcore

heavy metal / power metal

hard rock / stoner rock / alternative rock / grunge

thrash / death metal

doom

doom / sludge / post hardcore

pop rock

pop rock / alternative rock

​Serge

heavy brass metal

Trumpet, trombone and drums and… they play metal. Here is Ottone Pesante’s second album Apocalips. Yes, no guitars and so what? The trio plays heavy brass metal and expresses how intensive wind instruments can be.

The cover of Apocalips shows seven trumpets revealing the evil and suffering that the people of the world will perish. Ottone Pesante’s musical style is far from apocalyptic but has a dramatic undertone. Their brass music in combination with the heavy metal way of playing, delivers an unexpected dazzling and beautiful pallet of original vibes. 

Ottone Pesante are the trumpet player Francesco Bucci,  the trombone player Paolo Raineri and drummer Beppe Mondini. Their first album Brassphemy Set in Stone was a surprising piece of work although it received mixed opinions. We are sure a lot of people couldn’t box their weird approach of metal.  

History shows several introductions of jazz instruments in metal music. Jazz fusion in metal started in the beginning of the 90’s. Celtic Frost introduced already in 1985 the French horn in their ground breaking album To Mega Therion. One of the first bands who used a trombone in metal was Sear Bliss. This Hungarian black metal band is still active and employing this instrument to complement their dark atmospheric playing. In the year 2010 the Norwegian avant-garde metal band Shining released their album Blackjazz. The saxophone on the album contained a free jazz style which rendered Shining worldwide attention.

Apocalips starts with Shining Bronze Purified In The Crucible in a very jazzy way but changes in metal riff- like chords. The trombone vibrates like a bass guitar. Ottone Pesante increases speed on The Lamb With Seven Horns And Seven Eyes. The drumming is pure metal with a punk touch. 

These Italian wind blowers swing through the whole album like a three lunged elephant. They create a creepy atmosphere with their high tempo mixed with blazing alien sounds. The instruments construct all kinds of metal related feelings with interesting experimental pulsations. 
The Fifth Trumpet, is the only track with vocals. A dark intro guides us to the most extraordinary  song of the album. Lifting up the tension slowly, the fifth track explodes with the black metal vocals of Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation). This is to our opinion, by far the most experimental conceptualization ever recorded in terms of avant-garde music. 
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Ottone Pesante’s bizarre alterations never get bored. Their wall of sound is artistic and inspiring. Two unique worlds of music converged together in an elegance almost beyond words. This is daring art with lungs and lips!


Patsker

heavy metal / power metal 

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‘The history of Brazil will cross the ocean’ tour, brought Armahda, a Power Metal band from Sao Paulo Brazil, to several European countries. By chance the self released cd was given to me by the owner of a second hand cd shop, which the band had visited during their European tour. 

My hunger  to  discover  new  underground bands who,  like Armahda, play  music with passion and emotion was unexpectedly rewarded. A quick search on the net showed that there was still no review of this cd. So here it is, on our Merchants Of Air website.

The band was formed by Maurício Guimaraes (vocals and all instruments) and Renato Domingos (all instruments) in 2011. They recorded the album with guest musicians in 2013 and they toured during summer of 2018 on the European continent with a complete band.

At the first listening of this debut cd, released in 2015, I was immediately hooked on their greasy and heavy speedy guitar sound.  Brazil has many bands who play different styles of Metal, Armahda is a band that mixes many Metal styles to their  own style. From Speed Metal riffs with screaming guitar solos and fast double bass drums, to  Pagan/Viking Metal songs, to serene semi acoustic indigenous influenced parts. The lyrics take you to the painful and unknown  history of their native country. The second song on the album contains the sentence: ‘history is written by the ones who win’ and opened my ears and eyes for the rest of the album!

Paiol em Chamas is the only song in Portuguese on the cd, and is by far the most aggressive piece of Heavy Metal music on the album! Screaming your guts out in your own language is still the best  way to do so!  This self-titled album gives you more and more details after every listen. The lyrics are published in the booklet and give you insight of the history of Brazil. From time to time you feel the emotional ghost of System Of A Down wandering  around, but this is more a compliment than a comparison. The musicians play their instruments like it’s the day before they won’t be able to play anymore…

Armahda gives you honest Metal with speed, power and passion!!


​Patsker

 

thrash metal

Three years ago, when Merchants Of Air was still in its infancy, I got acquainted with Finnish heavy rockers Supremate. Back then they released their self-titled debut album, one in which I saw both potential and possible points of improvement. I remember writing the review from the perspective of a festival attendee, arriving at the event in the early afternoon. Now the band returns with a second full length, and I have to say, they have been evolving away from the young Nirvana, Offspring and Pantera coverband they used to be in the beginning of this century. Now Supremate is a full grown band with a solid and powerful sound.

'Uniting Flaw' contains ten tracks, all grafted from old school thrash metal. Opener 'Despite The Scars' immediately delivers the potent riffs and the raw, somewhat aggressive vocals. Although influences from their thrash, groove and heavy metal heroes are still present, the band seems to have found their own sound, one that most headbangers and riff enthusiasts will certainly appreciate. 'The Crown Don't Make A King' is a perfect example of that. It's loaded with delicious metal riffs but also leaves some room for experimentation, mainly in the drums.

My favorite track here is 'Territory' (not a Sepultura cover), closely followed by the crushing 'Blackness' and the groovy 'Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints'. These three songs show how much the band has been evolving in the past few years. Most of the instrumentation seems to come quite naturally. Only the vocals feel somewhat forced at times, as if the vocalist tries to overpower the music. I sure hope he can keep this level of aggression and roughness going for the foreseeable future.

I feel like the talent and potential of Supremate is slowly blooming. 'Uniting Flaw' shows a more coherent and experienced band than the debut album did, which is a good thing. Of course this album is no 'Master Of Puppets', 'Cowboys From Hell' or 'Rust In Piece' but it certainly is an entertaining piece of old school heavy metal. As before I think these songs will work better on stage than in the living room but if played loud enough you might find yourself banging your head multiple times. So check it out, you just might find a new favorite tune.


​Serge