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WARCRAB - Damned In Endless Night
Transcending Obscurity Records
So sludge and death metal is nothing new but when the Brit's get involved yeah we can take some notice. The key word here is "some". WARCRAB is a six piece act, yeah three guitarists, who started out a few years back and have consistently been putting out releases since 2012. This is their third overall and my introduction to em.
Obviously you can't help but think BOLT THROWER meets sludge via the USA. I mean look at their promo photo. They look like a bunch of dudes prepping for a hurricane party in New Orleans. By the third or fourth listen you might want to check their passports as far as their origins.
For me Damned In Endless Night has some highs and OKs. The highs are when their death groove hits maximum intensity. For example "In the Arms of Armageddon" plunges you into a SABBATH-ian state of mind minus Ozzy but plenty of Iomni worship by guitarist Geoff Holmes. In fact it is he who adds so much electric solos to some cuts on here which makes em worth waiting for.
Add to that Martyn Grant's vocals which come across as venomous filth being spewed forth by a human sized viper. Of course the basics here are the riffs whether collected as doom, death or sludgey. To me that's the OK part and it's well executed to say the least. I found myself pushing replay on songs like "Abyssal Mausoleum", "Fields Collapse," and "Kraken Arise" strangely enough all appearing in the middle of the release. Yeah I'd call em the marrow inside of this decent size bone.
https://tometal.com/
https://warcrabuk.bandcamp.com/album/damned-in-endless-night-death-sludge-metal
https://www.facebook.com/WarCrab666
COLTSBLOOD - Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness
Black Bow Records
So if you're a regular reader of SFM666 (and frankly who isn't) then you're probably wondering why I'm writing about a release that came out last year on Candlelight Records. Well dear confused, it's because Black Bow Records is re-issuing this one on vinyl. The pretentious record collecting scum will love that. Secondly COLTSBLOOD are new to me so hey I wanna write about em.
Yes, yes you're shocked that I don't know about COLTSBLOOD. Yeah I'm so behind the times. Maybe I should get some English Doom fanatic to throw a fuckin brick through my window to announce every little tidbit of information about the British doom scene. I'm serious because I rarely read other websites.
But anyway in this band's case I'll take the brick. Now that I know about COLTSBLOOD and listened to this a few nights after work, which is a perfect time, I love them. First off this is John McNulty who formerly played bass in CONAN. That's your sludge factor. With this band (a three piece featuring John on bass & vocals, Jemma McNulty on guitar and drummer Jay Plested) the man has veered away from the path of his old band.
COLTSBLOOD are for the most part dark as in it's sludge metal meets a more atmospheric genre side of black metal and maybe something leaning to the funeral side of doom. John's vocals are a mix of psychotic screams, bestial grunting and feral haunting. When not hammering down-tuned massive sludgey riffs Jemma's guitar playing twists tremolo picked hypnotic harmonies. The drum work is fine as well.
The bottom line for me here is between their whole bludgeoning there's some fast blackened effects as well as a little dark melodious space. A fine release and worth a re-issue, or a re-inspection for those of us (myself included) who missed out on it the first time around.
https://blackbowrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://coltsblood.bandcamp.com/album/ascending-into-shimmering-darkness
https://www.facebook.com/Coltsblood
BLUTVIAL - Mysteries of Earth
Heidens Hart Records
I was definitely looking forward to hearing this one ever since I saw that Heidens Hart Records was releasing it. BLUTVIAL is an English black metal act that I first got into back in the late 2000s with their debut full length I Speak of the Devil. A few years later they came out with another one, Curses Thorns Blood. Both albums are incredible examples of the fusing of traditional raw black metal with, I guess you'd call it, more modern temperaments and non BM influences. All of which does not drive the music out of the genre.
So here we have Mysteries of Earth the band's first new release since 2013's Brythonic EP but still this is their first full length since 2011. As a whole all I can say after blasting this continuously for a week is that the basics of this band's past have not changed. That's a good thing because we're talking about that second wave rawness with intricately picked tremolo runs, blast beat brutality as well as some very high pitched and grim vocals. You couple all of that with the melodic portions that sweep in and around like ghostly swirls of atmospheric bodies.
Now with all of that I compare it with their two previous releases and it's easy to see how BLUTVIAL moved their own ways a notch more extreme. I was waiting for something in the bad progressive moves department to kick in but no. Their thrash and burn cuts rip flesh. The longer cuts push a more eloquent torture prospect. Feel the darkness.
http://www.heidenshart.nl/
https://heidenshart.bandcamp.com/album/mysteries-of-earth
https://www.facebook.com/Blutvial
SUBSERVIENCE - Forest Of The Impaled
Black Bow Records
Here's a British version of kitchen sink death metal. Now I use the term "kitchen sink" as a reference to bands who toss out a bunch of genre styles in their sound. It can be looked upon as negative or positive and in this band's case it's the latter. SUBSERVIENCE, a Sussex quartet, use old school death metal as a base which they add progressive elements, core angst and thrash to create a modern metal sound which comes across as a cool threatening sound.
Obviously this five piece act like BOLT THROWER but then move on from there. This their debut full length starts off with a roar and the type of fury which will kick a few heads backward. Midway through the band adds some groove style that doesn't make you want to grimace. There's also a melodic texture added to the onslaught of punishment. This is the kinda stuff you wanna see slam pits form to and faces ripped apart. This is pretty damm good.
http://www.blackbowrecords.com/
https://subservience.bandcamp.com/
FEN - Winter
Code666 Records
Well first off if the title of your release is Winter and it's released in March you're kinda off. With that said let me tell ya about this British act. Years ago, at the end of the 2000s to be exact, there was this sudden rise of shoegaze influence in black metal. You had bands like ALCEST, ALTARS OF PLAGUES and FEN leading the way with this new progression into the black metal template. To be honest I liked it at first because it was just another outside influence that strengthened the genre. I liked the first albums by those bands including FEN's debut, The Malediction Fields. But it didn't last.
After the shoegazers got their feet in the door their second albums showed their true colors. Now they were shoegazer/post rock bands who were influenced by some black metal. Of course the critics in the media ate it up because they were college radio losers to start with. A bunch of hiptards clutching MY BLOODY VALENTINE and other ADD acts as if it was masturbation. My answer was a middle finger salute which is why I did not care for FEN's sophomore release Epoch in 2011 and vowed never to give them the time of day again.
Which brings us to this point, I decided to give FEN another chance because I had read some fuckin early report that the band was going back to their roots on this new one. Of course that could've meant anything but I had hoped it did mean a return to playing actual black metal with some atmospheric touches instead of boring earth fart indie crap. So the verdict here is yeah Winter is very good in fact better than I expected. First of all it is a very long album, the longest for these Brit's recorded output. The opening cut "I (Pathway)" is over seventeen minutes long. I made breakfast while it played in the background.
Winter is spread out over six long cuts taking it to slightly over an hour and fifteen minutes in playing time. Fortunately the song structures never get boring or repetitive which plenty of other bands do on similar endeavors. The title definitely captures the total vibe of the sounds which allow the imagination as well as feelings to run wild. There's harshness, solitude, dread, melancholy, numbness all well crafted in these compositions. This is the album that should've followed Malediction Fields but obviously this trio didn't have it in em yet. Now eight years later they've done it.
http://www.code666.net/
https://www.facebook.com/fenofficial
https://fenuk.bandcamp.com/
