SHINE - Wrathcult review

 

SHINE - Wrathcult

Dark Descent Records

So here we have the debut full length by SHINE from Poland. The story behind this act is that it's a new band by former HAZAEL bassist / vocalist Tomasz Dobrzeniecki. Just for the record HAZAEL was a early 1990's Polish Death Metal band who put out two full lengths and then that was it. 

Personally, as someone who has been into Polish DM for a while, I thought HAZAEL 90's out put was average compared to their contemporaries. Now I'm basing that on an album and a demo I heard back in the day. Sure some people will say it's fuckin great. And I'll be "sure but was it better than VADER?" Ah yeah so sit down and shut the fuck up.

Which brings us to this new one by SHINE. First off Tomasz Dobrzeniecki is now just playing guitar. Vocals are done by Marek Krajcer who is fucking amazing to say the least. The rhythm section of bassist Wojciech Gąsiorowski and drummer Paweł Duda are full blown dynamic. Finally there's guitarist Mateusz Waśkiewicz who I'm suspecting does all of the lead work.

With all of that said this is the most generic sounding Polish Extreme Metal release ever. Seriously it's as if an AI program took five or six Polish Death Metal and Blackened Metal acts, combined em and produced this release. Anyone into Polish Extreme Metal knows that there's a certain feeling, a hate filled climate of aggression and a original touch to their music. 

This release is a generic insult.

https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/shop/

LISTEN HERE:

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wrathcult

APOLAUSTIC - No Plenitude Without Suffering review

 

APOLAUSTIC - No Plenitude Without Suffering

Transcending Obscurity Records

So this is a new band by Romain Negro the former vocalist / guitarist of the Swiss Black Metal band STORTREGN. OK fine but this sounds like a follow up from STORTREGN's last album Finitude which came out in 2023. In other words if you are a fan of Switzerland's long time Black Metal / Blackened Death act STORTREGN then you'll like this one a lot. 

There ya go it's Melodic Black Metal to the hilt. It's influenced by the old Swedish Melodic BM sound. And of course there's the Swede DM influence as well. All of which is cool in my book. Romain Negro is also responsible for the cover artwork as well. The guy is fully in control of everything. 

Musically yeah this is cool. Romain Negro has that high pitched roar of a vocal sound. It's a classic vocal sound which anyone into Black Metal for a generation knows well and likes a lot. Along for the ride in this band is drummer Nicolas Muller from the French Melodic Death Metal band AKIAVEL. And on guitar and bass there's Merlin Bogado from DYSSEBEIA who also used to play with STORTREGN during live performances. 

In the end the song writing wins out as far as Melodic Black Metal / Blackened Death goes. Romain Negro finds ways to reaffirm a genre which has been worn out for a decade or more by generic copycats. Yes like I said earlier if you like STORTREGN then you'll like this. But better yet if ya wanna hear a perfect album then here ya go. 

https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://apolaustic-label.bandcamp.com/album/no-plenitude-without-suffering

CNOC AN TURSA - A Cry for the Slain review

 

CNOC AN TURSA - A Cry for the Slain

Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings

Ironic that I'm listening to a patriotic Blackened Folk Scottish band at the same time I'm reading a news article about two young Scottish girls who have been vindicated for defending themselves from a foreign born predator. Here's a photo of the girl defending herself. Looks like the battles against cultural oppression, attacks by foreigners and national pride still exist today in the great nation of Scotland. But hey check out this girl defending herself. Looks Black Metal to me.

So what we have here is the third album by Scotland's CNOC AN TURSA. Just for the record their name means Hill of the Standing Stone in Scottish Gaelic. That also coincides with the music which I mentioned earlier is Blackened Folk Metal. Their songs are all sung in Scottish Gaelic. Yeah I know it's authenticity to the max. 

What I like about this album is how the song structures are pretty much all Folk driven with the Metal style weaved in. Which for many Folk Metal bands it's the opposite if not just pandering to a genre. As far as the Black Metal aspect goes it's subtle. This is more of an epic yet melodic type of album which is definitely a listening pleasure. 

I mean the roar of the battle vocals. The powerful riffs which diverge into melancholy with leads that are Folk-ish. Of course there's a point where this all falls into what we use to call Pagan Fest type of music or Battle Metal. Either way I like this album a lot and need to find their first two releases. 

https://apocalypticwitchcraft.co.uk/

LISTEN HERE:

https://apocalypticwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/album/a-cry-for-the-slain

MEGADETH - Self Titled review

 

MEGADETH - Self Titled

BLKIIBLK Records

OK so this is it, MEGADETH's final album, alright sure but let me get out a few things. In all honesty I haven't kept up with MEGADETH of late. In fact I had to search the racks to find that the last release I have by em is Endgame from 2009. Maybe that alone should disqualify me to write about this latest release. But hey that's up to you the reader. 

As far as my history with MEGADETH goes well yeah I'm an old fuck so I was there since the beginning. I still think their first three albums in the 1980's are their best. After that it's a pick and choose kinda thing. I say that because when you get my age, average just ain't good enough. Now I will say that the band's 2007 full length, United Abominations, was pretty good. In fact I've listened to that one more than any other releases they put out previously in a long time. 

Which brings us to this their last album. Now obviously when a band says this is our last album, it's gonna suck.It's a fuckin given fact it will suck because the band has admitted it has nothing left to give artisically. We're looking at death throws, get it. But no don't pull the sheet over my face yet. 

So let's start with what I don't like about this album. I think the production sucks. Now sure most MEGADETH albums have what I'd call a "dry sound". That's why when you play their early albums you've got to tweek the knobs on your stereo to bring about a fuller sound. So I hate the sound on here which is OK since I doubt this label had the cash to put into it. 

Now what I like, opener "Tipping Point" is pretty cool. But the next track "I Don't Care" is a winner with an aggressive Thrash attitude of Fuck You. I also like "Let There Be Shred" because of the chorus; 

The second half of this release is less Thrash and more Hard Rock music with boring lyrics, odinary song structures but good solos. "Made to Kill" is decent musically but lyric wise it sucks. "Obey the Call" is worse but hey great solos. Mustaine sounds good on here. I'll give em that prop. But in all honesty this is what I expected aka: an average sounding MEGADETH album.  

https://www.blkiiblk.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NCM96mIQ4U

HIDEOUS MANGLEUES - All Your Friends Are Dead Reissue review

 

HIDEOUS MANGLEUES - All Your Friends Are Dead Reissue

Hells Headbangers Records

There's a lot to unpack here as far as personal history goes as well as other stuff. First off the original version of this CD came out in 1996 on Ecocentric Records. And for many Extreme Metal fans it's considered a unholy grail of Grind. I've got a copy albeit years after it came out and if memory serves me I think I got it "used". But there's some personal connection I have with HIDEOUS MANGLEUES. 

Back in the fall of 1989 I moved back to Pennsylvania from North Carolina. I don't want to get into the "whys" about it. In 1990 I saw an ad in a fanzine for the HIDEOUS MANGLEUES demo All Your Friends Are Dead. It was a thirty-two song cassette tape. It was like three bucks so I sent em a five for postage. Maybe a month went by until it came in the mail I fuckin liked it a lot. 

Now at that time I was also doing my own print fanzine, which was all about underground music, so I wrote to the band if they wanted to do an interview. I included a dozen questions to em in the package and that was it. Once again some weeks went by and the band sent me a package. In it was their interview answers as well as their new five song 7"er We Live... So yeah good times back in the 1990's. 

For history's sake HIDEOUS MANGLEUS started out in 1989. They were from around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They were a four piece act consisting of Sam Biles on vocals, someone named Feev on guitar, Joel Bonde on bass, and Curt Bonde on drums. Why were they not well known back then? Well when the mainstream music media and labels at that time pushed other acts then the underground ones get lost in the way. 

But hey the cool thing is that HELLS HEADBANGERS, as always, delivers the goods when it comes to bands from the past who deserve recognition. Plus they put it out on CD as well as double vinyl. Musically HIDEOUS MANGLEUS were early ghouls of Grind who had a background in Punk fuckin Rock as well as Metal. I always thought they were a fun extreme sounding band. This is a soundtrack for insanity and getting reissued is one of the best things ever. Nuff Said!

https://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hideousmangleus.bandcamp.com/album/all-your-friends-are-dead-2

ARGUS MEGERE - Cerburea apusului review

 

ARGUS MEGERE - Cerburea apusului

Loud Rage Music

So when I saw this release come in for review and learned the basic PR info about it I got excited. ARGUS MEGERE is another Romanian Black Metal band fronted by Fulmineos (aka: Emilian Matlak). I'm familiar with one of his other bands ORDINUL NEGRU. I've got two of their full length releases and they're both damm good. After listening to this one a few times I can say yeah there's a huge difference in the two bands. 

Just for the record ARGUS MEGERE is a band Fulmineos started way back in 1996. Their first full length, Obscur și etern, came out in 2001. What we have here is their fifth full length. Now since I can't judge this upon the band's previous releases. I will say it's far different than ORDINUL NEGRU which is just great Black Metal. 

ARGUS MEGERE is a grandiose mix of a lot of things. I mean there's Folk influenced Black Metal, melodic atmospheric keyboard driven prog, straight up Black Metal as well as a touch of Doom. This is what, in the past, I described as late night Black Metal. There's five tracks on here with only one an instrumental, "Șarpele din Nouri", being under five minutes. The other four tracks are long epic journeys into atmospheric realms of rich sound. 

Always remember that in order to come away with this style you need great musicianship. Whether it's the delicate use of keyboards, the dynamic drum work, the melodic guitar sounds that run throughout and of course the various vocal styles being performed. I mean this is not just an album. It's a classic piece of music composed by the Romanian artist Fulmineos. 

A decade ago I said the future of Classical Music will be created by artists from the Black Metal scene. It was a total boast on my part at the time based on listening to one or two albums I liked. But here we are now and listening to this it's like I am proven right. Even better is that this is not what those hiptard losers back in the day thought Black Metal would "progress" into. 

Yeah this is Black Metal on it's own artist's terms producing some amazing sounds, ruling atmosphere and an enjoying tranquil touch at moments while still under greatness by a raw blackened attack. I like this a lot and also I can die now. I mean nothing is gonna beat this one so Boom! Just kidding but it is an amazing release which should be checked out.

http://www.loudragemusic.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://loudragemusic.bandcamp.com/album/argus-megere-cerburea-apusului

ANGERSEED - Rapture Is Mine… Glory Is Ours review

 

ANGERSEED - Rapture Is Mine… Glory Is Ours

Pest Records

If your feel for brutal / technical Eastern European Death Metal has subsided over the past few years because your old time favorites haven't put out some stuff then here ya go. ANGERSEED is here to fill your need. They are a four piece act out of Hungary who have been around since 2008. 

Yeah I know it's another cool band from the past who's around today to kick some fucking ass. As far as history goes ANGERSEED put out a demo in 2009. Afterwards they've released a few EPs and a full length, The Proclamation, back in 2016. Their only original member is vocalist Peter D. Maniak who is keeping this band and it's style alive. Hails to this guy! The guy has some great deep mean vocals.

Add to that I give props to drummer Jozsef Gava. I mean this guy is the best Metal drummer in Hungary. His performance on here is fuckin fantastic. This guy's drumwork on this release is a dynamic observation on whether a release is great or average. Jozsef Gava makes it great. Plus you've got guitarist Viktor Nagy who's riffs interplay with the the brutal drumming. Add to that his psychotic solos. 

Yeah ANGERSEED' Rapture Is Mine… Glory Is Ours is an amazing release. This is what I wanna hear as far as Eastern European Death Metal goes. Yes totally brutal with a slight Tech Death sound and drum work which is diabolical. Hell Fuckin Yeah! 

https://pestrecords.ucoz.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://pestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/angerseed-rapture-is-mine-glory-is-ours