IRDORATH - The Final Sin Art Gates Records Well so far 2020 has not been a good year for black metal as far as I'm concerned. Sure you would think since we're in a world wide pandemic with pestilence, people dropping dead everywhere and church closings. It should put a smile on every grim and frosty face out there. But musically it's been average at best. But then this little ole glimmer of hope came in for review and now things don't look so bad after all. IRDORATH is a four piece act from Austria. They've been around since 2005 and this is their fifth full length. I kinda feel ashamed for not hearing about em before. That goes especially for their past two releases, 2013's I Am Risen and Denial of Creation from 2017. I spotlight those two releases because with this new one it's three in a row where the anti-religion is the main theme in title and songs. Maybe it's a trilogy or just what they like to write about. At this point I don't know.
As far as what I do understand is that IRDORATH are a pure modern black metal sounding act. Now for you who don't know what modern black metal sounds like then here you go. Think about plenty of thrash oriented riffs. Toss in some actual guitar soloing. Spice it up with a variety of refrains in the song structures. Forgo any synths for background rhythm or atmospheric breaks. And just let the guitars supply amazing riffs, tremolo fills and even some acoustic breaks.
The drum work must be immaculate with thunderous bass and good blastbeat action to accompany the guitars. The end result must have an epic quality as if the band is performing from a mountain top or the bowels of hell. As far as the vocals go you've got what I consider blackened death style singing. A mix of the blast furnace harsh and somewhat growled in order to sound threatening. Yeah that's all of what this band is doing on here. Add to that the ebb and flow of how these nine songs carry on as if a concept piece was being displayed. Over the past 3 or 4 years the term "Modern Black Metal" has been tossed around a lot to describe plenty of over hyped mainstream horseshit. Those band's glory had more to do with the guy tweaking the knobs then creating cool sounding music. So for me IRDORATH still have that organic, true feel going for them on this release as opposed to being made good. They're a band who should be on your must listen to list. This might be one of your favorite BM albums to pick up this year. https://www.artgatesrecords.com/ https://soundcloud.com/irdorathofficial https://irdorath.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Irdorath
HARMDAUD - Skarvor Art Gates Records This is the second full length by HARMDAUD which is a one man black metal project out of Sweden. The one man is multi instrumentalist / vocalist Andreas Stenlund. Now when I was researching, reading the promo info and listening I saw that this guy is friends with Vintersorg aka: Andreas Hedlund. In fact Hedlund produced this album as well as the last one, Blinda dodens barn, from 2017. Now with that said, yeah there are some parallels between this and Hedlund’s eponymous band. Fortunately it's the good stuff. First off there's plenty of thrashing folk metal melodies that jump out at you with ferocity. The lyrics are sung in Swedish which carries the ethnic feel. There's a splattering of effects, moderate keyboard use and an all around feeling of epicness in the song structures. Vocals bounce around from harsh screams, clean vocals, death metal baritones and even some spoken word parts. Of course atmospheric black metal is the template as far as the basic sound goes with other elements be they thrash, folk and melodic death metal attached. If the desired effect was to transport the listener to another realm or time period then it works. Now as much as the music is sweeping and compelling it must be put forth that the artist is not a mere musician. I said this years ago and it bares repeating. The whole one man multi-instrumentalist black metal thing has gone two fold. Yes we still have the guy in a room with a laptop creating something. On the other hand we have full on composers like Andreas Stenlund who give us music that equals classical music of the past. http://www.artgatesrecords.com/ https://harmdaud.bandcamp.com/releases
SUDDEN DEATH - Stillborn Art Gates Records Brutality and bloodshed to all from Italy? Well from the standpoint of us here in the states it's the more well known FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE. But this five piece act has walked a long hard road to get where they're standing today. SUDDEN DEATH originally started out in the late nineties. Over that time the band has put out three full lengths as well as gone through some line-up changes.
It's because of that last part I decided to check out their 2014 full length Monolith of Sorrow. After which yeah there's some differences so it's obvious that Stillborn is actually a rebirth. It's also very short as in a running time of slightly less than fourteen minutes. Add to that is a piano intro with some bestial grunting. But when the band does actually kick into gear it's in your face brutal but more in line with death-core from years ago. No one can dispute their sincerity in creating music worthy enough to kick your ass. But are we talking about old school death-core or death metal? I've got a few similar sounding releases by US bands from 2008. So I think we're talking the latter. Which kinda makes sense since there's a clear lack of organic-ness surrounding the recording. Their two new guitarists might be the influence here. Oh well if you're into it. http://www.artgatesrecords.com/ https://suddendeath666.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/suddendeath666
REBEL SOULS - The Forces of Darkness Art Gates Records You've gotta listen to things a few times before making a judgement call. Case in point, so the first time I listened to this German band's debut full length I wasn't automatically enthused enough so I started doing household chores while it played in the background. After a while I was in the other room when I thought hey this is pretty cool. REBEL SOULS hail from Germany but I think they live in Spain now. The band is a two piece act with bassist/vocalist Stefan Hielscher and guitarist Thomas Plewnia. They enlist a session drummer, James Stewart, as well. The band started out back in 2000, yeah I know, holy shit. But they did put out some demos and a single along the way. Both members were/are also in DEAD ENTITIES' REALM so that explains the gap. Musically what we have here is plenty of straight up death metal via the 90's era Euro style. At times you've got punishing riffs with searing leads and brute force vocals. Other times things get slightly melodic but not to the point of Swedish wimp. These two guys know how to keep things brutal and relentless albeit in a past era which nowadays there's so many others in the driver's seat. Think Poland for example since the French are going totally blackened death. Good? Yeah but there's so much else to choose from in this death metal pond. http://www.artgatesrecords.com/ https://rebelsouls.bandcamp.com/releases https://www.facebook.com/rebelsouls.deathmetal/
YGGDRASSIL - All Shall Burn Art Gates Records Viking Metal from Spain??? Yeah well maybe twenty years ago there would be an issue but I heard Viking Metal from South America years ago so hey who cares right. Also these Spaniards lean more to the death metal side of the whole Viking / Battle Metal genre. This is not UNLEASHED style DM by the way. It's more in the melodic vein. Think more on the lines of ENSIFERUM or AMON AMARTH with tapas. On the high side YGGDRASSIL are pretty good at doing the whole wannabe AMON AMARTH thing down to a mead's drop. First off the vocal growl by David López is fantastic. Musically the deathly melodies are pitch perfect which is evident on the title track as well as "End Of Cycle" and the fist rising "Battle In The Storm", which is my favorite track on here. On the low side the comparisons to AMON AMARTH, in the song structures, is so evident that even a few brutal death metal touches don't change much. In the long run no they are not a step away from Valhalla. Allow their vocalist to scream more and sing in a gruff voice. Give the guitarists some room to solo to the point of killing. The rhythm section is fine. Your future is secure. http://www.artgatesrecords.com/ https://yggdrassil.bandcamp.com/releases https://www.facebook.com/YggdrassilDeathViking/
INDEMNITY - Bloody Minded Bullet Headed Art Gates Records Do people slam dance anymore? I mean really slam dance. I'm not talking about that pussy ass push and shove bullshit or that punching the ground shit. I'm talking about a real circle pit. I don't go to hardcore shows anymore for obvious reasons. People would look at me and think I was someone's grandfather. But I will be at DRI in August. Anyways I ask the question because if this band was around in say 87 or 88 then there would be a huge pit. INDEMNITY hail from Belgium, have been around for a dozen years and this is their debut full length although they do have a few demos to their credit. Musically this is hardcore at it's base, late 80's era since their secondary stake is metal specifically thrash. Then again they do float in some metal core influence, ala old New York Hardcore, on a few cuts. I know it's not cool to say but it is the truth. Hardcore has become so one dimensional so generic it's boring. It wasn't always that way. Yeah I know "oh it was so cool back in the old days." Well yeah it was because you could listen to ten hardcore acts and all would/could be different. But hardcore died in 86, yes it did at least the original momentum. What followed afterward is up to interpretation as well as opinion. As long as you remember unless you were there then your opinion is limited. INDEMNITY, on here, offer twelve tracks in around twenty minutes of loud aggro extremism. They have all the bells and whistles of typical hardcore fan subjects. If you're into it then there you go. Nuff Said. http://www.artgatesrecords.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Indemnityband
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Attention
In Jan. 2020 some not so nice person(s), who obviously don't care for Metal, decided to complain to a social media platform about something I posted. That got me banned from posting links there under the former blog title Scumfeast Metal 666. Fine I just changed the name to what you see now. Hey I'm still here and, under our present day situation, will be more extreme then before.
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Extreme Metal or Music is generally a form which is accepted by 1% of all of the music loving public. It is elitist in every way and that's important to those of us who call ourselves fans. The 99% of people who will not like it are Not Supposed To. The music wasn't made for them, "the masses". It's music that's for those who take things to that "other" level. There is nothing hip or fad about it. In fact I treat those two notions very harshly.
