When faced with an album cover such as this the mind spins. The bands moniker brings to mind a vicious scene from a Salvador Dali 'feature' from the 30's (yes, the 30's!) much like the film the imagery here is stark and powerful with a slew of collaged pictures which are immediately recognizable; themes of war, poverty and beauty stand out and the intrigue only grows. Based on prior experience one might assume this to encapsulate audio of a style likened to Napalm Death, Insect Warfare or Terrorizer.

There's one way to know for certain.

Plucked from the void the style makes an instant impression. And the assumption is somewhat on point; this is bathed in Grindcore values. Featured early on "Stabbing Spiders" runs a whopping forty-seven seconds.

However, there's something else in the mix, another element which results in the audio bearing a jagged, blunt and undeniably abrasive aura with abrupt stylistic breaks (Is this the definition of Mathcore?) "Martyrs", the first track, being the earliest of indicators that this isn’t going to be an album easily defined within traditional genre boundaries.

Unpredictability is the word of the day here, as well "grueling" as this is quite the strenuous workout for the ears, especially those not familiar with the aforementioned ‘style’. Suffice it to mention that those wishing for mere chuggery, speed for the sake of speed and melody will be invited to dig deeper (as this album smothers the senses), this contains all of this though showcased in frenetic amorphous bursts as well enticing calmer passages opening the door for a myriad of other emotions to flood the psyche.

To state “Mirrors” contains complex arrangements and that the musicians involved are insanely talented is much like stating that the sky is up. Some elements, however, are less than blatantly obvious. For instance, it's difficult to decipher that Pupil Slicer are from the UK; growls, bellows and the angst dripping vocal assault boasts zero accent. More surprising still is the fact that the throat responsible belongs to Kate (Davies) whose talent is an undeniable and unprecedented force of nature (vocal gymnastics within "Collective Unconscious" will make one an instant believer) made even more impressive still by the fact that she also handles guitar duties. Shocking, is that Pupil Slicer is a three piece (outfit), as there's enough turmoil and intricate unforeseen meanderings draped in masterfully-controlled chaos in these arrangements for five.

Obviously, “Mirrors” will warrant several spins to fully digest and thoughts will tumble as to where influence derives as it does so. But when it clicks, it clicks!

As a debut this predicts a brilliant future which Prosthetic should be extremely proud of signing. Now if only this damnable Covid thing would dissipate in order that the ferocity of the band’s talent and raging wildfire on stage presence can be fully experienced. (8.1/10)

Cult

Band info: www.facebook.com/pupilslicer

 

Read More »

Black metal is the new black. And while the scene doesn’t struggle with an overt fashion crisis, at least not currently, it’s certainly the new cool. The genre has always been great but nowadays it seems bands lean more towards Deafheaven or Darkthrone. A broad generality, but not wholly inaccurate. Then there are bands like Mutilation Rites. Bands that have a way of hitting the pure switch on genres and making it work.

Mutilation Rites is a four piece hailing out of Brooklyn, New York playing a fusion of black/thrash/doom metal. The four-piece released their first demo in 2010 and haven’t let up for much since. Their first full length Empyrean portrayed a heavy Darkthrone influence while also breaking things down into bouts of drone. The album was solid but sometimes felt a bit stretched. Their latest offering Harbinger expands on their capabilities and showcases a more perfected craft.

Harbinger is thrashy, thrashy like the last Nocturnal Graves record. From the opening chords of “Black Pyramids” Mutilation Rites bring the rage back as though a sharper blade has cut into these songs. The crunch and smash is more honed. The stomp-march tempo that black metal has perfected is brought in spades. Ex-Tombs drummer Justin Ennis shines brightly throughout as the band charges full force. “Tactical Means of Ouroboros”, perhaps the album’s strongest song, thrashes and blasts away; one of the most energetic and destructive pieces on the album and possibly one of the best songs the band will ever write. It’s filthy and frothing.

While the drone/shoegaze is still present it has also vastly improved. Melodic sections take on an eerie tone and don’t feel like they’re stretching Harbinger for a run time. “Exhaling or Breathing” brings out seething melancholy tone that sounds like something Deathspell Omega might have penned (without the neck-breaking time signature changes). The piece crawls along while still managing to sound creepy.

What makes Mutilation Rites a stand-out amongst a black sea of black metal is that their approach works. The way the band brings in other genres to their black metal template shows just how great their songwriting is. “Gravitational Collapse”, for example, melds genre after genre without sounding like it’s trying to over achieve. It thrashes as much as it pummels forth while still tossing in some d-beat/crust influence towards the end. Pieces like “Suffer the Children” and “Contaminate” sound like the band was sampling heavily from the Disfear catalog.

Harbinger is the follow up that Empyrean deserves. Fear of a cluttered, muddled album was valid with the way Mutliation Rites carried themselves, but they’ve come out of this one standing far and above. We could’ve gotten a piece that was riddled with good intent and instead we got a vicious killer. Riffs are tighter, melodic sections are both more harrowing and glorious, and George Paul’s vocals have never sounded so pissed and sinister. Mutilation Rites continue to be more Darkthrone and Nocturnal Graves than Deafheaven but would hold their own with any black metal band. Harbinger is loud, sharp and a great slice of truculent black metal.

Christopher Luedtke

Band info: www.facebook.com/mutilationritesnyc
Label info: www.prostheticrecords.com

Chris is a film reviewer for Examiner.com (good luck finding his work there) and journalist for Metal Injection (better luck finding his work there). In his spare time he video blogs and promises a second installment of the Guilty Gear Retrospective on YouTube under theOfficialChris. He also writes novels, applies for jobs, attempts to write music, eats cheap food, drinks lots of coffee, enjoys opera, worships grind, and works. He can be found posting songs and bitching about the awful V/H/S film franchise on Twitter: @CoffeeCupReview.

Read More »

Three years following the release of Darker Handcraft, crust/hardcore/grind outfit Trap Them emerge with a new album and an entirely new rhythmic section with Brad Fickeisen, formerly of The Red Chord on drums and Galen Baudhuin (Infera Bruo) on bass.

On Blissfucker, the four-piece have peppered their chaotic combination of grind, crust, metal and hardcore with some of the slowest and catchiest riffs they’ve ever written, but that’s not to say that Trap Them have softened their sound. On the contrary, right off the bat opening song “Salted Crypts” sends out a very clear message to the listener that this is not going to be pretty. Rightly so, Blissfucker is filled with the band's iconic Entombed-influenced crusty hardcore and is just as heavy as previous efforts. But while Darker Handcraft rage forward at full blast its entire run time, on this new work they've found a way to balance all the relentless blast-beats, all the vicious and cacophonous guitar-work with some crushing hooks and catchy tempos without compromising the intensity of their attack. Mid-paced bangers like “Gift and Gift Unsteady” and “Sanitations” offer some reprieve from the utter cacophony displayed by clamorous tracks such as “Lungrunners” and “Former Lining Wide the Walls”. This works really well and gives each song a more distinct character, which is no easy task when we’re talking about grind/crust releases.

The record also contains quite possibly the darkest, creepiest song Trap Them ever written to date, I’m talking about “Ransom Risen”, which starts slowly with some eerie guitar melodies but suddenly bursts into a boisterous blend of frantic drum beats, ferocious riffs and anguished roars.

Even though, Blissfucker is a bit different and more sophisticated than previous works, I’m positive that fans will be truly impressed with the record’s cohesion and energy.

Band info: www.facebook.com/TrapThem
Label info: www.prostheticrecords.com

Read More »

It’s never all that fun to hate on a record, particularly by a small band willing to try new things. But here I sit with Last Poem / First Light, the newest from So Hideous, and I can’t find many positive things to say. Parts black metal, screamo, and modern classical, it never particularly congeals into a whole anything, except for a post-rock record that would have felt outdated 10 years ago slathered with nasal-y screams and fractured song arrangements.

Let’s start off with the compliments. So Hideous clearly knows what it’s doing when arranging strings, and the most overtly classical elements are the record’s best, providing respite and beauty, and sometimes even unease, as on opener “Rising.” In these moments, the band demonstrates an ear for nuance that is nowhere else repeated, or is only done with an obvious “HEY ISN’T THIS BEAUTIFUL” that the effect is ruined.

Ruined being the perfect word to describe the record’s brief high points. “Stabat Mater,” presumably named for the Arvo Pärt piece, opens with strings and returns to their theme on piano, but sandwiches a supremely cliché black metal passage in between. This, for the most part, is So Hideous’s compositional game: alternating between melody and dissonance, often jarringly and with no clear goal. “Last Poem” provides another example of this, tacking a coda about a fifth the song’s length onto its end. The string passages themselves are well-arranged and performed, all credit to guitarist and composer Brandon Cruz. But the parts sound nothing like one another, and when placed together, as on “My Light,” we have the sound of a black metal band playing overtop a classical composition in the same key, but neither is particularly improved by the other.

And both are done a disservice by the vocals, undoubtedly the worst part of it all. Christopher Cruz injects a nasal whine into his screams that curdles them in a way that unfortunately reminds me of too many basement-fried screamo bands that never made it past a demo in the mid-2000s. So Hideous is clearly going for something grandiose, and his vocals are amateurish in a way that strongly hurts the music. What Last Poem demands is a strong performance with deft range and confidence, and Cruz provides none of that, instead substituting angst for strength.

Then again, even if his vocals were up to snuff, the listener would still be left with warmed-over ideas from Envy, Deafheaven and Explosions in the Sky. For how much effort was clearly put into composing and arranging this record, it deserves to be better. That So Hideous has grand ideas is a start, but its reach exceeds its grasp by an almost incalculable sum. Thankfully, a start is more than most bands even bother with; So Hideous could make music deserving of their ambition yet.

Rob Rubsam

Band info: www.facebook.com/sohideous
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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

If you’re reading this webzine and you don’t know who Skeletonwitch are, you need to reconsider everything about your life. For 10 years now these Ohio boys have been putting in the hard work and have become one of the most respected bands in metal. One could say metal fans have formed a bond with the band as strong as a marriage built on love, trust and communication. We love Skeletonwitch and they love us. This is fact. We can trust that every couple years Skeletonwitch will release a killer album. And as for communication, these relentless road dogs provide ample opportunity to chat them up as they rack up the miles to play just about everywhere. The traditional gift for a 10 year anniversary is aluminum, so buy the guys some cans of beer already! Or at the very least buy Serpents Unleashed, the ‘Witch’s new firestorm of super-heated, flesh-rending metal. Is that title a euphemism?

For 11 tracks averaging just under three minutes each, Chance Garnette (vocals), Nate Garnette (guitar), Scott Hedrick (guitar), Evan Linger (bass) and Dustin Boltjes (drums) plow their way through your speakers with all the force they exhibit in the live environment. Kurt Ballou’s production brings out all the clarity of the four talented musicians as well as all the horror inherent in Chance’s phlegm-wracked rasp. What really stands out is the footwork of Boltjes. That furious double-kick is spot on every time. Absolutely flawless. Coupled with his partner-in-rhythmic-crime, Linger, that end of things holds up on par with the twin guitar attack of “N8 Feet” and “Scunty D”. That pair has shared a little more of the writing duties on this go ‘round and it’s blatantly obvious they are operating on the same tight wavelength.

On Serpents Unleashed, Skeletonwitch do what they do best. Blistering rhythms abound at full sprint without knocking the sense out of you. By which I mean the riffs are very, very memorable. Especially on tracks like “Burned from Bone” and “I Am of Death”. The latter slowing the pace a bit so the melodies really show through. As pummeling as Skeletonwitch can be, there’s always that catchiness. The blackening of their thrash/NWOBHM is most apparent on “This Evil Embrace”, which oozes atmosphere during its opening moments, and via the windswept tremolos on “Born of the Light That Does Not Shine”.

Serpents Unleashed takes what Skeletonwitch is to the next level. They’re leaders among men at what can best be described as simply “metal”. Undeniably quality metal. Until next time, do as Chance says and “Drink beer! Smoke weed! And eat pussy!”

Matt Hinch 

Band info: www.facebook.com/skeletonwitchmetal
Label info: www.prostheticrecords.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 @MetalMatt_KofN.

Read More »

Generally, shunting together genres known for their confrontational and exclusionary force is a dangerous move but, over the years, Shining (Nor) leader/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jørgen Munkeby and his ensemble have done so with enough intelligence and flair that it has paid off in style. As one of progressive metal’s audacious enigmas, Shining (Nor) have made their name by fearlessly blitzing convention. Spanning the dark divide between the explosiveness of jazz, prog-rock’s intricacies and extreme metal’s severity, the band's fifth studio release, ‘Blackjazz’, provided the breakout, as Shining (Nor) caught the wider attention of music fans that merit such gallantry. The evolution from an acoustic jazz quartet to the band flaunting extensive talents on ‘Live Blackjazz’—released in 2011—is sizeable, and with their latest offering, ‘One One One’, the evolution continues; albeit with fewer tangential leaps. The temptation to descend into blackened-jazz alienation à la ‘Blackjazz Deathtrance’ has been suppressed on ‘One One One’. Instead Shining (Nor) have filled the furnace with as many memorable vocal refrains as possible to work strictly within the confines of verse/chorus structures. In essence, the band has written 9 extreme pop songs shellacked by juddering industrial and progressive metal, resulting in an exciting, immediate and highly addictive listen. “Pop” is used in the loosest sense of the word, of course. You will not find saccharine choruses or moments that would be palatable to anyone unfamiliar with the intensity steaming off caustic vocals and pulverising metallic blasts. Munkeby’s vocals—part slithery lothario, part mantra-bearer—are pushed to the forefront and the bass-heavy riffs and unstable rhythms split and collide like The Dillinger Escape Plan remixed by Trent Reznor or Aphex Twin. All this comes at the expense of free-form jaunts, and the caterwauls of Munkeby's saxophone are limited to a few choice wig-outs ('How Your Story Ends', 'The Hurting Game'); much like his sparse interjections on Ihsahn’s ‘Eremita’ from last year. This may dishearten those looking to Shining (Nor) for jazz-in-extremis, but by cutting each song right to the bone and hanging not an ounce of fat on each arrangement, the band have allowed us to see straight through to what actually exists at the core of Shining (Nor): A swarming mass of enviable musicality and rampant hooks. Don't get too comfortable, however. This may only be a momentary experiment. One that Shining (Nor) have conducted to see how the rats react to stimulus shot straight to the synapses.

Dean Brown

Band info: www.shining.no
Label info: www.indierecordings.no | www.prostheticrecords.com

Dean Brown is a metal scribe based in Ireland. He is currently a contributing editor to the North American cultural magazine Popmatters and he regularly throws words for a number of other reputable loud noise publications such as About.com/heavy metal, Soundshock.com, MetalIreland.com, MoltenMagazine.com, amongst others. He has a strong affinity for music that shakes souls and leaves debilitating tinnitus in its wake and such obsession has left him financially and medically crippled, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Follow Dean on twitter @reus85

Read More »