For the promo video of the track “Cold”, Xibalba got together with a bunch of friends, had a bbq and generally smoked and drank their way through the afternoon. It’s a video shoot not uncommon amongst hardcore bands, and designed to show how much people love to floorpunch at some of their gigs. The Southern California five-piece are a mix of lifestyle choices and influences that broaden the local hardcore scene, and a couple of band members even make sure the current crop of bands are booked in their area.

However, it is this broad aspect of the band that has an adverse effect. The mix of influences leaves no real defining sound that makes them instantly recognisable. Even when the band have a certain viewpoint, it isn’t something that they want to convince the listener about; “some bands have certain agendas and messages which is cool and the reason I got into hardcore, to be able to speak my mind but no need to force it down someone’s throat.” It’s not as is the lyrics aren’t forceful enough, either. For instance:

“Fuck the world it’s just me now, and I’m after you. Nothing will save you, eye for an eye / Finger on the trigger, barrel to your head / it would be better if you were dead.”

Xibalba fuse together an older death metal sound and texture with 90s hardcore beatdown bands (some say Sepultura and Disembodied, but I still haven’t made my mind up). But a generous portion of the album is stuck in caustic sludge, strangled by the depths of monotonous riffs and dampening much of the tempo and energy. It isn’t until just after mid-way through the release that tracks get interesting again with tracks such as “Red” and “Obituary”, “Cold” and “Spanish Harlem”. This is where their strengths lie, and it’s a shame that they are to be found at the end of the release.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

“It’s more […] to do with crowning ourselves as the king of what we do” says Suicide Silence vocalist Mitch Lucker. It seems that he is adamant that The Black Crown should not be seen as a change in direction, but a consolidation of what the band have achieved over the years. It is a mysterious way of introducing what is only their third album, drawing a line under and championing themselves above other bands of a similar sound – some of whom are their friends. Just who do they think they are, eh? The last time I heard such a claim was by metallic hardcore nutters Full Blown Chaos during the release of their album Heavy Lies The Crown, and I certainly wasn’t going to go toe-to-toe with beefy vocalist Ray Mazzola over it. I am sure the vitriolic and anonymous fans of the internet will let Mitch know if they disagree.

In any case, being consistent is surely a good thing. No one seems to mind when Devildriver or Lamb of God release albums that are very similar in sound and technique, and this is what Lucker is looking for. “Every time you put a Slipknot CD in your CD player, you know it’s Slipknot. Every time you put a Deftones CD in your CD player, you know it’s the Deftones. With this record, we are crowning ourselves with…our sound.”

Sure enough, this does sound very similar to past releases. The visceral brutality of some tracks from the earliest releases have made way for a continued death metal/core attack, but with a more groove metal influence. It certainly has moments of heavier early 2000s moments of “nu-metal”, such as on “O.C.D”. The band enjoy artists such as Korn and Slipknot so it isn’t any surprise to hear the faintest of influences amongst the strong choruses and the angular riffs; Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis can also be found on track “Witness The Addiction”.

Conceptually, the album doesn’t stray too far from the creation of No Time To Bleed. Lucker’s lyrics again concern the more personal thoughts rather than any anti-religious furore that can be found on The Cleansing. Again the band wanted to again channel their live performance and crowd reaction back into their recordings, picking out what the fans enjoy at the shows and then working from there. Guitarist Mark Heylmun has said that “for us, it has always been about not trying to go over people’s heads. We’re musicians that are semi-lazy. We don’t want to go up there and have to think too hard.” So simple, bruising riffs seems to be the key for this. What has changed is the attention to the recording. Out has gone producer Machine, who relied too heavily on the digital side of recording, and in has come in Steve Evett who has been instrumental in getting math-metallers The Dillinger Escape Plan in one place for long enough to record an album or two. Suicide Silence utilised all their “live tones” to get almost exactly the sort of sound on tape as you would witness at a gig. With breakdowns galore, this album will please existing fans.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

I’d like to say that this review was a little late due to being so engrossed that I lost complete track of time (though that would only be a half-truth). Obscura’s fourth album will leave you absolutely in awe of the musicians involved whilst leading you on a dark and spiritual journey into the very essence of technically proficient and all-encompassing death metal.

The album covers themes that are not the “usual” Satanic spells and earth-destroying evil hell bullshit, but instead contemplate Friedrich Schelling’s German Naturphilosophie (On Nature’s Connection to the Spirit World). Omnivium itself is a “black vortex within the universe, an immortal downward spiral annihilating all kind of matter, life and elements to create something new.” As complex as this may sound, it perfectly complements the incredible musicianship on show.

It isn’t unheard of for a death metal band to have a concept or interconnected ideas for an album, but it is a little strange for a band to put such emphasis on the lyrics considering the nature of their raw, guttural and dissonant delivery. Drummer Hannes Grossmann notes that “talking about lyrics is one of the most boring things for each death metal fan out there.” This is perhaps partly why the band have included lengthy instrumentals on the album like ‘A Transcendental Serenade’. There are few moments of downtime during the album – most notably at the record’s beginning and mid-points, with opener ‘Septuagint’ delivering a deliberately less stressful start, and ‘Prismal Dawn’ showing the band playing with moments of delicate acoustic lines reminiscent of some Opeth tracks.

However, with the more robust side of the album, Obscura masterfully weave their way through a myriad of influences from jazz and neo-classical styles, all under the banner of obvious influences such as Necrophagist and Pestilence, but with the gravity of bands such as Cynic and the raw technicality of Crytopsy. Guitars are often panned left and right, washing the listener with various intricate polyphonic solos that harmoniously blend together. On the whole this gives a very pleasing non-linear sound with enough room for bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling’s trademark fretless tone and playing style to shine though.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

One of the obvious and important aspects of starting a new band is of course what you decide to call yourselves. It doesn’t really matter what your name is as long as your fan base are able to both remember and to a certain degree spell it. In a previous existence, The Soulless were known as the cryptic sounding Ignominious Incarceration. Yes, quite something. A few years down the line and a few mixed interpretations across the web, the Bath-based five-piece decided a change was in order: “we wanted a new name which was easy to remember and say […] The name has a dark, edgy feel to it, but is not instantly recognisable as metal and it’s easy to say. We feel this represents us a lot better, as well as our new music.”

For their debut Winter Born, Ignominious Incarceration played controlled and death-heavy riffs similar to Decapitated and At The Gates, with a few leads, licks and solos that looked towards Necrophagist and In Flames. Essentially it concentrated on pushing the heaviness through the mid-to-low end in a way that pleased quite a lot of punters. For Isolated, the band climb the upper scales of their intricate playing, with stop/start deathcore breakdowns laying a base for the twiddling of harmoniously entwined guitars and rampant shredding riffs. With tracks such as ‘New Perspective’ the band also mix a little aggressive thrash and current Brit metal such as Malefice into the album. On ‘Unaltered’, ‘Earthbound’ and ‘Without Heart’ the band bring out the fluid melodic side of some death metal, but in some ways it sounds similar to August Burns Red or even the metalcore of As I Lay Dying. It certainly is different, and in some respects you definitely can’t blame the band for wanting to try new sounds and experiment a little. The talent in guitarists Steve Brown and Kristan Dawson is obvious, and their particular pairing complements each other well — listen to ‘Clones’ and ‘Unite Us’.

The downside of this is that if you don’t push things far enough you will be engulfed by the bands you tour with or who have been on the scene a lot longer. The only difference from some of the current crop of bands such as August Burns Red is that there is no vocal melody along with the throaty roars. And so if you don’t like that “emo” voice “ruining” your metal, then check out this album.

[Originally published on Onemetal]

Music lovers can now be immortalised when they die by having their ashes baked into vinyl records to leave behind for loved ones.

A UK company called And Vinyly is offering people the chance to press their ashes in a vinyl recording of their own voice, their favourite tunes or their last will and testament. Minimalist audiophiles might want to go for the simple option of having no tunes or voiceover, and simply pressing the ashes into the vinyl to result in pops and crackles.

Cue sampled screaming and impending sense of dread. Cue quick-fingered flickering bass playing. Continue to incredibly fast virtuoso playing for 41 minutes by all members of the band with intensely gore-rific vocals. And there you have it; Brain Drill has released another cacophony of sound designed to make both your ears bleed and send your heart racing. It really is a simple as that. Its technicality is on par with its aggression, but it is almost comical to hear — kind of like watching decent zombie film where you become numb to the inventive ways in which the un-dead become… well dead. It is horrific to watch, and you really shouldn’t be laughing or possibly enjoying what you see or hear, but you do.

With blatant disregard to which some bands will write at least a few riffs that are passably memorable or catchy, the band just pile on the intensity in glorious bucket loads of demented death metal — sort of like All Shall Perish on speed. It just sounds so ridiculously over the top, and all the time. The downside to this relentless sensory overload is that there is little diversity to the album, which is emphasised even more by the obvious similarities to ‘Apocalyptic Feasting’. Some of the sweep picking riffs (particularly on “Beyond Bludgeoned”) obviously take a degree of craftmanship, but at the same time the just sound a little tiresome or maybe not inventive enough. It could be because of the scales they use — I am not sure, but it sounds more like a workout than a moshpit. It’s not all bad though, the are a few head scratching genius moments where you are left wondering how on earth they got this down on tape, particularly the stomping, head swirling, mid-section of “Entity of Extinction”. But that sums up the album really, you are going to be either massaging your beard over this or gurning furiously whilst air-riffing. I would, however, suggest checking out “Apocalyptic Feasting” before this one though. (2/5)

[Originally published on Alternative Vision]