PENETRUM - Instrument Of Delusion Metal Scrap Records Full disclosure on my part, most of the time when I see a release come in for review tagged as melodic death metal I pass on it. My reasons are simple, I know some will laugh (considering what I do like) but I see melo-deth as very generic. Over twenty years have passed and I still hear bands trying to be the next IN FLAMES, HAUNTED or worse SOILWORK. So what interested me to check out this release was first and foremost they're Ukrainian. That great nation just happens to always produce cool stuff in my not so humble opinion. Secondly is what I read in their bio that their sound leans towards Finnish melodic death metal. But even with that, one listen to this their debut full length and you won't call em CHILDREN OF BODOM clones.
Along with the usual galloping rhythms, rough throated harsh vocals and melodic song structures there's a homespun folk influence which I like a lot. Toss in some hallowed vocals here and there plus incredible guitar work throughout and you've got a winner. I thought the cover song by a band I do not know was a throwaway track. But the final cut, an instrumental, was absolutely beautiful as well as a powerful ending statement. If there are negatives then the album cover, which depicts an evil looking composer, throws you off on what to expect musically. This could've been power metal for all the eyes see. Another thing is the production which had me wondering. If say Peter Tagtgren got hold of this band's reigns would they sound generic as hell? Good question but for now this is an intimate play that will take any jaded melodic death metal person to the side and say wow. https://metalscraprecords.com/ https://metalscraprecords.bandcamp.com/album/penetrum-instrument-of-delusion https://www.facebook.com/groups/penetrum/about/
AKRAL NECROSIS - Underlight Loud Rage Music Hailing (literally) from Romania it's AKRAL NECROSIS who are certainly not newcomers to the whole Euro black metal scene. The band has been around for a decade, put out a couple of small format releases early in their career. Then in 2012 they released their debut full length, Pandemic Dominion, which obviously got them some acclaim as well as recording this their second album and getting signed by Loud Rage to boot. AKRAL NECROSIS's sound and style is like harsh Swedish black metal meets Eastern European pagan and folk. It took me a while to get into this or better yet, not to be jaded quickly. I do have that tendency especially when it comes to black metal. So I'm listening to the first cut "Separator" and I'm thinking ok I know what territory this is leading into, pure tremolo picked thrashy black metal. As the album continued things started to change and by the fourth cut "Exhortatio ad Bellum" I was like alright this review is gonna take a while.
After taking a step back and checking out the band's first album I can see, actually hear, that AKRAL NECROSIS has taken some of that harsh speedy blackened vibe and blended it with melody and elements of traditional metal. You know you can honestly hear the bass player on here, surprised the fuck out of me. There's also some clean guitar soloing which is starting to become a new staple of Eastern European black metal. The tortured vocals are slightly too up front in the mix for me but they're well placed.
I think one of the coolest parts to this album is how well the song structures are done. They're not just repeating tremolo blast riffs. Listen to "Purge", the longest song on the release at seven plus minutes, and you hear an intricate song switch to sludge riffage. I believe the bottom line here is that AKRAL NECROSIS have created an actual original sounding black metal release. I'm sure some hipster scribe will protest by saying "well the French were innovating in this before". No they weren't you putz. These Romanians have created something very unique and I'm glad to hear it. Rating: 5/5 http://loudragemusic.com/
WELCOME TO EXTREME METAL MANIAC OR WHAT i LIKE TO CALL THE HOME OF EXTREME METAL.
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.
Editor/Creator: Usurper of Eternal Condemnation and Inverted Opinions
Formerly SCUMFEAST METAL 666 and now EXTREME METAL MANIAC Blog
Info Articles Opinions & Reviews
.
created and maintained by mr. wolf:
band or label inquiries about a review can contact me via email. All those inquiries will definitely be checked out. No guarantees of course. I only write about what interests me. You can also contact me through the Facebook page on the link or use my email address mr.wolf69@yahoo.com
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.
