If you've been paying attention to modern metal of late, you will have noticed that most bands not besotted with retro, are pushing their music forwards with varied attempts at blurring the lines between genres. Some, of course, are taking the concept to the extreme by fusing those lines into a vast wall of sound. South Carolina's Darkentries, contentedly sat on Kylesa's record label, are one of the latter and have drawn influence from such quarters as sludge, hardcore, doom and post-metal to create a blackened, nihilistic cacophony.

What stands out the most here is the production. Recorded with Kris Hilbert at the curiously-titled Legitimate Business Studio, with the mastering taking place over at Audiosiege, the overall impression is of a vital, raw mix loaded with enough echo to bring it back from the brink. Carefully layered within, the powerful, mud-flinging guitars take pride of place at the forefront, the drums sit in the middle distance, and the vocal is left to rant and rave from somewhere out back. It's an odd experience to discover that the gapping between the levels mean you can actually pick out the points where Hampton Dodd's vocals start phasing. Of course, it is exactly because the band don't utilise every inch of space that, inside the sections where instrument drop-outs occur, it all begins to feel slightly removed from the present. Whilst a shame that slight fault does leave them much room for experimentation - hopefully more so when they finally get round to issuing that full-length.

Digging down into the tracks, 'TV Fuzz' shifts from a gentile guitar introduction into pounding black doom. With the vocal lurching between one that pitches mournful shoegaze and another that seems ensconced in inflicting post-hardcore chaos, the effect is intense and shattering. Though 'Honey Eater' and the stunning 'Feedback Funeral' stay on the same path, they muscle up every element. The vocal sinks deeper to create a more resonant, more forbidding atmosphere and finds a red-raw animosity when it gets its 'core on. Even the sludge-packing guitars wind it all down until the buzzing begins to vibrate at the back of your brain. What stands out, is that somewhere amongst all the to-ing and fro-ing, you'll hear strong hints at the kind of ambient, miserabilist post-hardcore peddled by bands like The Elijah or Devil Sold His Soul.

Upping their game, 'I'm Tired Of Being Awake' finds joy in warping the attack; picking up the desert and blowing it back in our faces. In these mere three minutes they find room to echo the emotional, death-addled contortions of Ihsahn and even time to tap out some Mastodon-esque string progressions. '1200-S' is their chthonic monster, emerging from its abyss to rip out some suitably alien roars and illicit agonising screams form its prey. There are also vast open power chords, gutsy basslines and heart-pumping chugs to get on board with. Lyrically, you'll not find much to sink your teeth into with this EP, save perhaps for 'Feedback Funeral' and that repeating disembodied scream of "just bloody kill me" or in the wild-eyed chant of "paradise, paradise" awaiting in '1200-S'.

Understandably short, impossibly indulgent, strangely exhilarating. In a sense, this kind of carefully-constructed lunacy is exactly what we, as disciples of extreme metal, crave. It's music that breaks barriers, retaining an essence of ancient majesty but remaining unafraid to let things get a little ugly and a little twisted. Easy listening this is not, but then this is, in effect, Darkentries' crack at sonic catharsis. Their ball, their rules. The Make Believe represents their own honest attempt to define what modern heavy metal means to them. It will be very interesting to see what kind of unholy noises they can conjure up in the future.

John Skibeat

Band Info: www.facebook.com/DRKNTRS
Label Info: www.facebook.com/retrofuturistrecords

 

John Skibeat is a self-described word monkey hampered by cravings for strong ale and stinky cheese. He continues to practice surgical dissection on most genres of music with the leftovers currently reaching publication at 'zines like Heavy Blog Is Heavy, The Line Of Best Fit or Ave Noctum. When not smacking seven bells out of various sizes of orb, he tumbles at johnskibeat, tweets @johnskibeat and blogs at, yes, you guessed it, johnskibeat.

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Coming in April from Halo of Flies (U.S.), Zegema Beach (Canada) and I Corrupt/Narshardaa (Europe) is a screaming good split 7” between Marburg, Germany's Amber and Cleveland's Locktender. This is the first new material to be released by Amber since recruiting new vocalist Julian and coincides with Locktender's new full length, Rodin. And Scratch the Surface has it streaming for your previewing pleasure.

Amber contributes “Heritage”, an emotionally charged and dark tune reflective of their post-hardcore lineage. It almost broods while Julian's desperate roar tears through anguish and apocalypse. The riffs are relentless and pounding, that fourth beat like a punch in the gut. Melodies soar between the peaks on the track's back half, carrying it skyward beyond the terrestrial.

Locktender also work the post-hardcore angle but do so with a conceptual basis of interpreting the work of (non-musical) artists through their own art. For this release they've chosen Herman Melville's “The Piazza” as the subject. It's a dynamic track working through walls of noise, tender guitar melodies, menacing vocals and heavy-handed aggression.

Each side of this 7” compliments the other by balancing volatility and vulnerability, introspection and outward expression. Why not have a listen for yourself, then head on over and pre-order it!

Band info: www.facebook.com/hereisamber | www.facebook.com/locktenderband
Label info: www.halooffliesrecords.com

Matt Hinch lives an unassuming life on the backroads outside Forest Mills, Ontario, Canada. He packs in as much metal as he possible can amid factory work, raising three daughters with his wife and working the land. In addition to Scratch the Surface Matt also writes for Hellbound, Ghost Cult Magazine, About Heavy Metal and his own blog, Kingdom of Noise. Keep up with him on Twitter @KingdomofNoise.

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Is it a bad thing to be stereotyped as full of big ideas? Junius approaches that line on Days of the Fallen Sun, a recent EP featuring two new songs, two (potential) re-recordings of older, hard-to-find tunes, four ambient synthesizer interludes, and a whole lot of catastrophism. Always a master of craft, the band grafts together huge choruses, mountains of reverb and some of its heaviest riffs to date here, never deviating from its path while still finding room to maneuver therein.

As it has on past releases like Martyrdom of a Catastrophist and Reports from the Threshold of Death, Junius tackles Big Concepts here, particularly those of disgraced scholar and theorist Immanuel Velikovsky, whose catastrophist interpretations of ancient history found him scorned by the scientific community. Esoteric though this may seem, his portentous writings about worlds in collision make for great metal lyrics: “we are the light / we are the fire,” he intones to end “Forgiving the Cleansing Meteor,” a song, appropriately, about accepting one’s inevitable negation by the universe. Joseph Martinez sells every word, and his natural feel for melody drives the band here, as it always has; though it would be hard to say it suffers per se, Days nonetheless feels like a slightly different record when his voice isn’t heard.

This is because Junius has never been a true metal band, though on “Battle in the Sky” it provides some of the heaviest riffs yet. Rather, in its amalgamation of goth, post-hardcore and sludge, the band serves as an exemplar of consonance in a scene obsessed with the dissonant. Previously released tracks “A Day Dark With Night” and “The Time of Perfect Virtue” favor full-bodied synths and crystalline guitars to head-pounding distortion, allowing Martinez’s voice the ability to duck and soar as need-be, never showing off and always in service of the track. This is perhaps best demonstrated on closer “Forgiving,” where he provides his own harmonies and counter-melodies, providing a wall of sound almost as formidable as that presented by the constantly-churning bass and multi-tracked snare drums. Even if his lyrics strike one as a little broad, he sells them with absolute conviction; by the end of Days, you’d have to be unnaturally confident not to fear death-by-meteor during your daily commute.

Unfortunately, Will Benoit’s production, while full-bodied and powerful, brickwalls the entire recording, and in doing so renders whatever nuances might have been heard absolutely invisible under the weight of each track. This is a minor complaint, but coupled with the poor-quality review copies distributed by Prosthetic, it gave me a headache initially. This has been resolved post-release, but a word to the wise: your music shouldn’t actively turn people away for any reason other than its content. And the songs here are damn good, with “Forgiving” absolutely among my favorite Junius tracks. Anything that takes away from that is, simply, unfortunate.

Rob Rubsam

Band info: www.juniusmusic.com
Label info: www.prostheticrecords.com

Rob Rubsam is a freelance writer and itinerant resident of Upstate New York. His writing about music has been published at CVLT Nation, Tom Tom Magazine, The Rumpus, Burning Ambulance, and others. When not contemplating giant squids or erecting a standing stone in his backyard, he tweets at @millenialistfun. Do not contact him with your black mass-related inquiries, please.

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Nowadays there are an increasing number of bands blurring the lines separating distinct styles of music that normally we’d never expected to hear merged together into a single and cohesive whole, constantly pushing the envelope forward. Such is the case of France based four-piece Celeste who play a eerie and anguished blend of Post-Hardcore with Black-Metal and whose latest creation “Misanthrope(s)” is more than worth talking about, for it does sounds deeply compelling and disturbing.
I wouldn’t call “Misanthrope(s)” an accessible album, it will take some time to get used to their intriguing musical visions and all the bile and torment emanating from them, but with a slight amount of patience and persistence the experience will prove to be rewarding.
There are no gentle intros or slow build-ups; rather Celeste plunges straight into an avalanche of repetitive, heavy riffs and raspy and agonizing screams on the opening theme "Que des yeux vides et séchés". The vocal performance of Johan is more caustic and tormented than some of the most raw and filthiest Black-Metal coming from Scandinavia and the fact that he sings in French only adds a cryptic ambience to the songs. I should add that the Black-Metal influence is not only perceptible on the vocal department as there are also traces of Black-Metal to found in the guitar work of Guillaume as well, most notably on “A défaut de te jeter sur ta progéniture”, where the chords are faster and more malevolent. However, throughout most of the remaining songs their riffs crawl fiercely from the speakers at a somewhat comatose pace hint slightly at Cult of Luna on their initial stage, when they were far more destructive and fiercer than today.
Celeste have presented us a sludgy, nasty and downright intense record that all of you looking for something different and vicious should give it a listen, and all you have to do is download “Misanthrope(s)” at the band’s website for free. Or eventually you can donate a little something to support them. (7.5/10)

Band info: www.weareceleste.com
Label info: www.denovali.com
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