DEAD AND DRIPPING - Blackened Cerebral Rifts review

 

DEAD AND DRIPPING - Blackened Cerebral Rifts

Transcending Obscurity Records

Well I must say this one starts off with a quick punch in the face and then settles down to a wrestling match. I'm not surprised since this one man death metal act is from New Jersey. By the way I was born in Jersey many years ago and lived there till my early teens. We didn't have death metal back then. In fact the evil band around then was SABBATH and yeah I was a fan. I wore a SABBATH Sabotage shirt to school in the 8th grade one day and got sent home because I wouldn't turn it inside out. 

Which brings us up to today, as I mentioned earlier DEAD AND DRIPPING is a one man band. That one man is Evan Daniele who is responsible for all the instruments and vocals. Musically Evan covers a lot of DM territory. Now here's the fun part. This release, Evan's third full length since starting out 2016 under this band name, is probably the most progressive, tech death and brutal DM release I ever heard. 

Vocally whether it's the satanic frog, the brutal DM pig or the cavernous beast, Evan sings it perfectly and maybe beyond. Is it real or computer generated I'll let you decide. What you can't question are the song structures as well as the long song titles and psychotic lyrics. I mean I'll go with pushing the line when it comes to brutal death metal but this release goes beyond my sickness level.

Evan Daniele is either a genius or a soon to be mass murderer high on prescription drugs. In that case DEAD AND DRIPPING's Blackened Cerebral Rifts is definitely something of a challenge to even the hard core BDM fan. If you're welcome to that challenge then here ya go. 

https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://deadanddrippingus.bandcamp.com/album/blackened-cerebral-rifts

AUGURY - Illusive Golden Age review

AUGURY - Illusive Golden Age

The Artisan Era




I learned about AUGURY a long time ago, well basically when I picked up their Fragmentary Evidence CD back in 2009. Honestly I never really got into this Quebec band's brand of progressive technical death metal. Then I got to see em play locally. For some reason which I've forgotten they toured as a three piece. But their performance was fantastic and they actually had a sense of humor. 


Now fast forward nine years later and their formula is basically unchanged. They're pushing what their fellow countrymen GORGUTS did years ago into more innovative areas of genre expansion. Frankly I like what AUGURY does over other  progressive or tech death metal bands. They still play death metal is first and foremost. I hate acts who combine Discipline era KING CRIMSON and death metal. I also despise bands with guitarist's trying to push speed and notes to the point of getting a headache.


Something else important to note that on Illusive Golden Age, as compared to Fragmentary Evidence, it feels as if the band has matured. Yeah sure that's obvious because of the time spent between releases but they just sound comfortable. This release is not always on a path to head snapping song structures. There's a mixed bag of moments when AUGURY play fast and loose with injection of non metal aesthetics that still rock. Other times it's a whirlwind of varied vocal styles created by vocalist/guitarist Patrick Loisel that take for a loop. 

All in all I enjoy this one better than their last one. Hopefully they're come through my town in 2018.

https://www.theartisanera.com/

https://augurymetal.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/augury/?ref=ts&fref=ts

OBSOLENCE - Inner Voice review

OBSOLENCE - Inner Voice

Godz ov War Productions





OK so when I saw this band's genre tagline was Progressive Death Metal I got that feeling of dread. Trust me I get uneasy whenever I see the word progressive especially within the meme of politics because it's actually regressive. But we won't go there. Musically when I see progressive I think OK you've just moved right off the fuckin genre template. But hey this band is from Poland and right behind me I have a one shelf full of Polish death metal albeit it's mostly stuff by VADER but hey.


OBSOLENCE are a fairly new five piece act from Poland. Sound wise on this their debut full length, but looks more like an EP, expect more death doom than anything progressive. Twin guitarists provide both methodical paced riffs and melodic passages while vocalist Dawid "Wilku" Staręga switches from gruff grunts and screams to clean vocals. There are times when you feel spaced out, like on the guitar soloing of "Reborn". Then there's "Calcaneus" which reminds me of PARADISE LOST when they went all post punk goth.


I won't go onto every song, by the way there's five in all. I will say this. I tried listening to this in the morning and couldn't get into it. The next day it was mid-afternoon and still no dice. But now it's around 4 am, I got home from work an hour ago. I've got rice on the stove and chicken in the oven plus a few beers in me. So yeah this is definitely easy on the ears type of stuff. Not my type of stuff but still a full length in the future would be interesting. Their vocalist is damm good and the melodies produced by the guitarists are both harsh and airy. Well done.

http://godzovwar.com/

https://obsolence.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ObsolenceOfficial/