With Anamneses, Alexandros’s intention is to create a bridge between the past and the future of Macabre Omen. Although this is a daunting task to do with just one song, Anamneses from the Past (Sirens Calling) does just that.
Track premiere from Nightstryke’s upcoming sophomore album – Storm of Steel!
Nine years after the previous album “March into Firelands”, Flame is here again with this EP from Finnish label Primitive Reaction and this is, while fairly short, a very welcome addition to their discography. Even the first listen shows that their frostbitten and dark sound is still there and the steel remains.
Musically, Moontowers straddle the line between 80s traditional metal like Manowar (Sign of the Hammer) and epic doom ala Candlemass or Solitude Aeternus.
In the ’80s, you could find a heavy metal band in every neighborhood, in every city, all over the United States of America. Many of them might have listened to Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, or just saw Ozzy and Iron Maiden live during their early US tours, or just witnessed a Kiss live show, so that was enough. You can’t imagine the kind of impact those bands had back then on the metal youth of America. The passion was there, creativity too, so you were only missing the skills. The young bands that had the complete package recorded songs that stood the test of time.
After over a decade of activity, Ysengrin, the project directed by Guido Saint Roch, released their final album: Initiato. The musical trajectory of the band was always very interesting and it is therefore fitting to end the life of this musical project by an even more curious final album. The main constant of Ysengrin’s career is the aim to create a music that sounds obscure, even a bit mystical, by the means of mid-tempo blend of black and death metal.
You ask most Lebanese (myself included) what they think about their country and they’ll tell you about its immense beauty and potential. Despite the countless tragedies and constant state of crisis, the average Lebanese stays positive and full of humor. That’s what Nightchains represent to me – the tenacity of Lebanon.
Not much is known about Hungary’s Devil Seed, even as of writing this article their self-titled debut album has not received much attention with no related or past projects to speak of. All we have to go off of is the band name presumably being a reference to the song off of Candlemass’s King of the Grey Islands. Lucky for us, as far as hints go, that’s a pretty good one. Marrying the synth-rich riffy atmosphere of Epicus Doomicus Metallicus with powerful, front-and-center vocals reminiscent of Solitude Aeturnus, Devil Seed’s self-titled debut album presents an unexpected and incredibly welcome slab of epic doom firmly rooted in the classics of the genre.
To me traditional doom metal has always been a genre of imperfection – it is in this imperfection and passion where thunderous doom riffs, enveloping atmosphere, and passionate yet often flawed vocals coalesce to some of the best metal out there. With their full-length debut, Purification is perfectly emblematic of this quality.
In that light, Crush the Insects is a surprising follow up to the debut because it takes several VERY different tacks on the band’s patented take on the genre: namely, it bothered being accessible in a way their other full lengths really aren’t. Whereas that first album was innately gripping, by virtue of its riffs and the way the band painstaking arranged/structured the way each passage glacially flowing into one another in lieu of conventional hooks, Crush… was very clearly an attempt at crafting a more traditionally memorable record than its predecessor ever attempted. It’s the closest thing to a “fun” album the band ever crafted; the band themselves even cheekily pointed it out with a sticker on the original CD issue of the album as “The Biggest Sell-out in True Doom”. Go figure.