Faith No More - Sol Invictus review

Year : 2015
Genre : Alternative Metal
Label : Reclamation Records / Ipecac
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.0 / 10

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What can you say about a new Faith No More full length beside wanting to say everything and then something more about it? The renowned group is notorious for a set of illustrious and well deserved feats, the casual invention of funk-, and alternative metal steadily included among those timeless accomplishments. If you are a newcomer to music in general - which happens to everyone, usually sooner than later - then the mere act of correctly gauging and weighing the significance of this group, is not self-explanatory at all.

Suffice it to say that Faith No More was THE upcoming band that other bands of  excessive amounts of established notoriety of the given era seemed and reported to enjoy listening the most to: Slash of Runs 'N Goses, the members of Metallica, and as I recall, even Nirvana expressed their utter and complete artistic admiration towards what Faith No More was doing even back in 1992, - the era of "Angel Dust", a timeless record to this very day - while Corey Taylor of Slipknot/Stone Sour goes as far as to say that witnessing Faith No More's live performance of Epic in 1990's MTV Awards, - from the audience - has completely rewrote his nervous system and gave him a completely new grasp on music.

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Stone Sour - House of Gold & Bones Part 2 review

Year : 2013
Genre :Alternative Metal with Radio Rock leanings
Label : Roadrunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.0 / 10

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Stone Sour emerges to declare the culmination of their - logically - previous effort, completing this body of - hopefully - ruthlessly defined modal doom with the informatively titled House of Gold & Bones Part 2 full length. Frontman Corey Taylor horizonted a more darker tone this time around, and so we shall inspect the statement on a per track basis in an attempt to determine if this culmination indeed is composed of flammable angry-gargoyle melodic spirit-tar. Still here? You must be desperate! Let's be honest here folks, Stone Sour is best when it is angry and dark, and it sounds like Aerosmith radiometal - I got nothing against that genre, just please bitchslap yourself if you are into it - when it seeks to go radio friendly. I invite you to this per track-review into the current psyche variant of the Corey Taylor! 

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Stone Sour - House of Gold and Bones Part 1 review

Year : 2012
Genre : Alternative Metal, Hard Rock
Label : RoadRunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 7.5 / 10

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I - a terrible letter to start a review with - just watched the new Stone Sour video "Gone Sovereign", and my expectations were met and not surpassed. Although the clip have sought desperately to put goose bumps on my skin in the process and failed at THAT secondary objective, I have heard a competent take on classic alternative - yes, I just lost a level now - rock. This is his.

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Monuments - Gnosis review

Year : 2012
Genre : Progressive Metal, Djent with Alternative Metal tones
Label : Century Media
Origin : United Kingdom
Rating : 7.0 / 10

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Monuments' Gnosis is a direct-, competent variant on the (re)forming shape of music eminently proposed by Periphery or Hypercube. What. The intricacy of the rumbling rhythm pattern is bread, butter, blood and adrenaline in this whimsical music niche, and now it is safe to say that the tendency to counterpoint the aforementioned exquisitries with alternative metal affectations on a "Toolesque" register, now has become so called common sense, and, also, a current unfortunate limitation of this still new genre, that is out to seek its vistas via releases like this right here. Seeking vistas is not a bad thing to do, but it does not mean that everyone has to find the SAME one. I like this disc, though it weighs in super-reminiscent to Periphery's latest when evaluated for its mere character. Read on to find out more about your mom.

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Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal review

Year : 2012
Genre : Progressive Metal, Djent with an Alternative Metal overtone
Label : Roadrunner Records / Sumerian Records
Origin : United States
Rating :  7.5 / 10 (rating evolved from 7.0)

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Regardless of my stoic subjective determination to refuse to review the first full length package of this formation due to the percept by which I personally have found said outing an exceptionally narcissistic one with its vastly out of proportion 62 minutes of playtime, the band now emerges with a full length weighing in at 69 - random series of facial ticks - minutes, that is an immediate sign of a super-possible - kind of : probable - false sense of proportion not only maintained but nurtured, indicating that the band might have ventured right through the periphery - daaaamnimdouche - to fall in love with their own mistakes. Even the premiere Periphery fan admitted that the debut disc of the formation overstays its welcome. Falling in love with your mistakes has tremendous entertainment value, and ridiculously-, even uniquely so if you are serious about this suggested affair. Nothing is more hilarious-, nor more miserable on the face of this reality surface than the Artist who explains how and why his Art works. Periphery thought they have the juice to be awesomeluciousandofcoursehighlyspectacularenough to reign rampant/evident during and for 69 minutes, which is an exhausting amount of time to spend even under a ravenous Nina Hartley in the 69 posture, so, the premiere US based Meshuggah fanband has a whole lot of things to prove to Yours, Truly to justify the Godzilla program length. The album is pretty good. Read on to find out what I think about this disc, if you really want to know but you are afraid to ask.

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Demon Hunter - True Defiance review

Year : 2012
Genre : Alternative Metal with Metalcore and Groove elements
Label : Solid State Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.0 / 10

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The new Demon Hunter LP arrives with an elegant trick, and that is to consort orthodox metalcore rhetorics with a much more ripe take on alternative metal incorporated into the fabrics than the variant of said element obtainable in the works of the stock-metalcore act. The top-form alternative fascinations of this disc are reeking top-form Stone Sour, and this influence is showing through the deeply melodic choruses. Segments that feature a strong mid-range vocal presence which exhibits only very mild interest in conforming to the OH!, so usual emo variant of the metalcore-chorus. After all, the chorus in emo metalcore "usually is" just a radio friendly example of alternative metal plus suckdom lyrics, share your opinion in the comment section if you think I'm deeply mistaken about this. (Too?) In the meantime though, read on to find out more about this ripped, curvatious sonic delivery.

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Red Lamb - Red Lamb review

Year : 2012
Genre : Cabaret Thrash Metal
Label : Roadrunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.5 / 10

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Red Lamb is the cartoon-thrash metal project of Dan Spitz, - don't believe the press release, there is nothing alternative metal on this - former lead guitarist and notability of Anthrax. Dave Mustaine, the key figure of Megadeth also has collaborated on this album, as co-producer. The material itself is pretty anti-staggering, and here is why : this spin almost entirely sounds to me as the latest Megadeth album.

This, of course, is not necessarily a bad thing, - nor necessarily the opposite - and it can even be the best you could hope for if this is the kind of music you are looking for right now. I personally tend to think that the character of the sonic warfare obtainable on this release is pretty hyper-orthodox cabaret thrash metal, I dare say, family friendly thrash metal. (Yeah, I could say "tired", "non-inspired", or "routine" if I were to be a troll.) Read on to find out more about the release.


The songs seem to follow and utilize the compositional techniques so keenly used by Dave Mustaine himself, but the content itself, in my opinion never manages to deliver audio data that which I feel is a must to revisit after being subjected to it on one occasion. I feel you. Thank you, don't come again. The album, much to my sorrowful frustration, features the terrible rhetorics when the narrator spouts out pseudo-powerful rants and malevolent declarations to scattered-on-the-floor cabaret-guitar riffs, like a psychedelic circus director would while under the influence of needing a desperate attention-fix. This is exactly as serious for a musical experience as Inspector Gadget is for a psychohorror. It is easy to spot the points when Dave Mustaine has absofuckinglutely nothing to say to you, because those are the moments he utilizes this type of rhetorics by. Highly boring and tolling to endure, and I remember the day I came to this very realization, noting that the problem is not with me, Dave simply plays shit music sometimes.

There is zero place devoted to open-minded experimentation and/or notable ambition to deviate from hyper-orthodox, risk free lightweight thrash on this delivery, instead everything tends to weigh in as tireless, BUT very much tired variants on the tendencies and methodologies used by family friendly cabaret thrash metal. This is routine stuff, and this is the thrash metal you are free to show to your grandma, she will like it. Dan Spitz sings pretty much like Dave Mustaine does, what is the deal with that? Strange, strange development, but not a disturbing one. Dan, in fact, sounds to have an even more wider vocal range than the pipes of Dave Mustaine cover, as there are some vocal passages herein that Mustaine in my opinion would not be able to belt out, but, luckily, he would not even try to.

Believe it or not, I do not want to be a douché with this release, because the enthusiasm behind it is evident, - and nothing more or else behind it is such - but I am virtually forced to wrap this review up by saying that I could not find a single thing-, nor a single second on this spin that managed to register on my Geiger counter as being of the "this is the shit!" category. Hyper-orthodox-, pretty much traditional detective cartoon thrash with no vile intentions in it at all. Family friendly thrash. Cabaret thrash. Inspector Gadget thrash. This is Megadeth from 1992, and this is not bad. It's just Megadeth from 1992. Nothing less, nothing else. And you decide if this matters.

Rating : 6.5 / 10

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Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk

Year : 2012
Genre : Melodic Death Metal Alternative Metal with Disco temper
Label : Redhouse Finland Music Publishing
Origin : Finland
Rating : 6.9 / 10

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Tracedawn's Lizard Dusk is as accessible melodic death metal that it might also be regarded as a form of radio friendly discopop music. The data on this LP is crystal clear, polished glitter audio contained within the continuous guard of gigantic rhythm guitars reigning at both channels, and the name of the prey of this sonic hive-entity always is radio friendly accessibility. Nothing else, nothing less, nothing more. This is very friendly bubblegum music, dare I say, cartoon melodic death metal with a discopop temper, and the only thing that will constantly remind you of its death character, - beside the gargantuan rhythm guitars - are the growls and screams. These vocal transmissions are delivered along a deep register, and they are sounding much more convincing in my opinion, than the neurotic high pitched screaming that also is widely popular.

The discopop melodic death metal is constantly colored by segments of alternative metal interludes. These additions are rendered by clean singing, and almost always rely on wall of sound power chord structures, showing relatively mixed results in their success factor. Some of these alternative melodic chorus-hooks are decent, some are less so, and I personally did not find a single one that can measure up to an instant classic hook the Mors Subita debut LP is virtually packed full of. Read on to find out more about this release.


It is an admirable quality of this disc that it is honest and quick at revealing the central sonic rhetorics on board within minutes. The following sentence is not meant to be a negativistic one, quite the contrary. If you have heard one song from this track, you pretty much have heard every other one, as all the songs herein rely on the same template structure, on the same blueprint. The music on Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk is not "just" catchy discopop melodic death metal. It is engineered to be it, and risks are not taken, nor their nearness is tolerated. In fact, this is the first melodic death metal spin I'm aware of that might give you a sugar overdose, as result of its discopop character.

Since the whole album is stable as a rigorous product that never deviates from its aspirations, evidently flatter moments are nonexistent on it. But superb moments are hard to come by, too. My personal favorite of the album is track 4, called "The Crawl". After a nice intro from the beginning to 1:45, the album brings all things it ever will, with top efficiency. Sci-fi pop synths and high frequency sci-guitars wonder around on both channels, disciplined rigorously by a monstrous bass, while all these entities are bending to the will of monochrome cybernetic drums. Then the monumental rhythm guitars are coming in to back the vocals up. Discopop song structure with the tools of melodic death metal. It is a legit thing to do, what I'm getting at is my percept that the Lizard Dusk LP is not capable to bring this top form all the way. Let us see why.

My more bitter qualms and subsequent non-satisfaction are relating to the alternative metal hooks. I love alternative metal, too, if it is worth to be loved. But try introduce a cheap alternative metal hook to me, I will see it coming a galactic mile away. The song I have just been telling you about, equally has an alternative metal hook, and it sucks purple donkey dick, I'm sorry to hear. Yet, do not let yourself be talked off from this decent discopop melodic death delivery until you have heard a track of it. Once again : discopop melodic death metal with zero risks taken. It does not plant you into the wall like Mors Subita, but comes to you as an extremely easily accessible take on the style. Some will dismiss it as a discopop sellout, personally, as long as it sounds thoughtful and good, I don't feel the need to use such harsh words or invade such a position. Tracedawn - Lizard Dusk always sounds good, and sometimes sounds thoughtful. "Sometimes" is more prevalent than "often" though. So a 6.9 will have to do right now.

Rating : 6.9 / 10

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Dunderbeist - Black Arts & Crooked Tails review

Year : 2012
Genre : Alternative Metal
Label : Indie Recordings
Origin : Norway
Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Norway's Dunderbeist brings a wide array of influences to your receptors, and it isn't afraid to show them, either. Opening track "La Guerette du Feu" - bless you, bless you - is as special and deceitful of an entry as any other on the release, as its fabric touches upon well executed, epic power metal as a start, which later transforms to an alternative temper, spiced up finally by intense groove metal. Then, the next track, "Through the Peeophole", not only shares Mike Patton's theoretic (?) voyeur fixation - see his band Peeping Tom and his avid fascination with the classic originator movie of the same title - but the structure of the song, the vocal mannerisms utilized are very reminiscent to that of Patton, too. Granted, the singer, while he does a likable job, does not sport the priceless pipes of his n1 sonic hero, yet the intent to give you a Faith No More song sounds to be Evident - ha, ha. - to me. I'd be surprised if the members of Dunderbeist would reject the assumption that "Through the Peeophole" is FNM influence from top to bottom. This is a mindhack. As you will see, the album bends to the command of the Faith No More influence in an eager fashion, oftentimes giving you results that are top of the tier. There is nothing wrong with such an influence, of course. In fact, the nicely presented Faith No More fixation is one of the bests I can think of. Does it make sense to write "best" in plural? Read on to find out more about this surprisingly-, and radically colorful release.


Third track, "Fear and Loathing" (not in Las Vegas, but, under your skin, for a start) conveys a mixture of early Beasty Boys, and, once again, Faith No More : the chorus of this track is a total tribute. "Lucifer Eyes" starts out with a relatively deluded vocal performance, in my opinion. It is lengthy, sporting an artificial bluesy vibe. When at 1:20 things start to roll, you hear - Surprise, You Are Not Dead - another Faith No More song. This one is an entry the inspirator band probably would have thrown away as "hmm, it has something, but it is not THAT strong". "Lucifer Eyes" is reminiscent to the Faith No More song "Collision" in its basic structure, in my opinion. I write that band name so much in this review, I hope you won't faint no more.

"Worst Sentence" - and you'd rather be shot in the face, huh? - sounds to be one of the flatter tracks on the delivery. A simplistic ACME doom-chord progression flatters a mid-tempo chorus that invites to mind a b-side Megadeth song. This sounds like the rhetorics when Mr. Mustaine goes New World Order in the Old World Odor. Think Dr. Feelgood. Family friendly cartoon metal, and, regardless how the mid-section tries to convey radical emotion in menacing cartoon style - "there is no time to fix you, no time to heal you now" - I must point out that the song failed to bestow the strike, at the first place. Not a bad song. It is just a sonic foam to skillfully conceal an utter pseudo-lack of actual inspiration.

"Shields Aligned" starts out like a Place of Skulls song. Google "Victor Griffin", he is not only the fronter of Place of Skulls and a valuable member of Pentagram, but he also is your Father, Luke. But, hell, check out the 0:48 mark of this entry, and pardon me the immature smiley. :D This is SOOOOO super-early '80s Faith No More, that it is both brilliant and ridiculous. This track is one of the strongest, with a superb-, 101% Camambert-free power metal concept. (So it has 1% of anti-cheese, yeah.) "Back into line, hold formation, hold your shields aligned, wait for my sign." - and all this in a way that remains 101% free of power metal cheese. I. Do. Not. Say. This. Easily. And I do not say easily the following, either. This is a very significant song, in my opinion, which kicks all kinds of asses to hell and back on spot.

"More Me" starts out in a disorganized fashion, and finds pleasure "keeping" - seemingly inadvertently - this pseudo-pace. The intense end section saves something of the day, but there is way too much obstacles in your way until you get there, regardless of the short length. An aptly varied track with significant redeeming values among more insignificant primordial characteristics.

"Winter Past" will masterfully deceive you into thinking that you are listening to some Viking Metal Berserker stuff. Seconds after the intro, the Viking temper submits to easily accessible-, legit alternative metal, and I assure you that the music keeps its dignity, and does not cause harm in Viking metal. It sounds like Viking Abba metal, and, from that point on, you don't really have much other chance than to check it out. The singer is pretty good herein. No effect wizardry, "just" emotion, and that is sufficient.

"8 Crows and Counting" starts out with the signature Faith No More tribal drumming, Mike Bordin style. The whole song is hasty-, desperate, psyho-motorly A.G.I.TATED. to reveal the Faith No More vibe. Partly "Midlife Crisis", partly "Epic", partly "Caffeine". I would be very surprised if you'd listen to this and told me I'm an idiot, this has nothing to do with a Faith No More influence. It has nothing else to do. But, a legit song nevertheless.

Concluding track, "Hum Hum", I leave to you to discover on your own. In conclusion, I will say this : Dunderbeist's Black Arts & Crooked Tails is definitely a pleasant addition to early 2012, and I recommend it with a poker face. A must for all who wants to hear new classic - sorry about that - Faith No More song structures.

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Metal Gothic
Label : Century Media
Origin : Italy
Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Lacuna Coil attempts to bring the energy of Rammstein to channel the music of Kidney Thieves, and, as soon as someone attempts to do so, it deserves immediate attention. The key-, minor deficits of the current formation are quick to reveal themselves, as are the beneficiary soul contents and other goodies the squad is able to deliver. The best potentiality of the record lies in its honest-, nevertheless elegant bubblegum character : the structures hardly-, if ever deviate from the standard compositional technique of verse-chorus, verse, breakdown, biiiigbig chorus, yet, as long as the served elements are able to please your receivers, this template is still quite efficient. The album's most favored song length of 3 minutes - only two of 12 pieces topple this length - seems to solidify the impression that the prime agenda herein is to deliver a hefty, easily accessible Goth soulride for the whole family, your secret latex gimp in the closet, - HA! - included. Read on to find out more about this slick release.


Dark Adrenaline shows capacity to exhibit a diverse set of moods, fortunately. Opening track "Trip the Darkness" has a pronounced leaning towards a dangerous, sanely limited fairy tale register, while "Fire" - much later - is a cybernetic soulhack inviting you to rebel without a pause. The hooks are coming your way in the forms of the choruses, primarily, and they bow to no boundaries regarding the tools and sets of moods they seek to utilize to administer steady entertainment. As for the moods, a good portion of this release sounds as traditional alternative - oops! - metal to me, and, to be honest, it is great to hear an LP that does not take its Gothic sentiments to the perplexedly extremely serious. The content herein has dignity, and a good amount of hooks.

Now for the good old fashioned beating. The absence of a Free Dominguez and an Animal like Corey Taylor is regretful, as the fronters herein - one female, one man - are giving acceptable and mediocre vocal performances, respectively. Their accent is tolerable, even cute at times, yet I not always am content with the "emotional" renditions they are portraying. The male fronter has only one favorite style of singing, and that is the bluesy rasp you already had the chance to bore yourself to hell and back with, while the female singer has a more diverse set of singing rhetorics. At track 11, "Fire", the chick fronter starts out the fray in comic book Free Dominguez fashion, and must say, she does quite a decent job at that. Yet, this rabid kind of borderline intensity is a rare invitee of the release, as Dark Adrenaline has a more tame character as its prime attribute, instead of angst. This, of course, is not a blemish, rather a probable heartfelt decision of the band, and, as such, this factor should not be subjected to criticism. On occasion, Lacuna Coil is able to reveal superb mid-tempo harmonic environments, like the chorus of track 7 "I don't believe in tomorrow" : this hook reeks Slipknot's "Sulfur" without ripping it off, so : Kudos!

Lacuna Coil's Dark Adrenaline is a solid offering all in the spirit of Italian gothcybermetal, yet, with a more pronounced spiritual leaning towards the peaceful than this particular Italian beauty. Lacuna Coil's latest weighs in as a serious addition to the first month of this particular year, and, the fact that it is largely free of gloom, appeals to me greatly. A safe, immediate recommendation and I like it.

Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Kidneythieves - Trypt0fanatic review

Year : 2010
Genre : Industrial Cyber Rock
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.0 / 10

There seems to be no method more proper than to wrap this year 2011 up with a review of Kidneytheives' 2010 output Trypt0fanatic. This 37 minutes full length is available through a dedicated subsection of the band's official website, by following this awesomelociuos URL.

I can cite it much-, but can't cite it enough that the reviewer is the least important thing in a review, and this still remains a general rule of thumb I enjoy ignoring from time to time with the - hopefully - realistic hopes of strengthening it. As such, and, if you dare, you can read my all-time introductory sentiments relating to Kidneythieves in the intro section of this review. If you have never heard of Kidneythieves so far, you are missing out on exigent-, rabid electronic music bordering on hard rock and alternative metal in character, always keeping the cybernetic Blade Runner vibe intact. The Blade Runner vibe is the one you feel when you are looking for a cab in the middle of a cybernetic city with its sky reigning in blistering pure-static, and you realize that you have just lost the cellphone number of the person you think you love. Then you spot a cab, and you wonder if you ever had it.

Kidneythieves, thank God and Co., does not know the spiritual anti-stance necessary to give up the will to function beneficiary, and, as such, though the band without doubt exhibits a steep-, relentless degree of curiosity cultivated towards the negativistic, is never satisfied with the mere act of diligent painsurfing, and always is on the hunt for the transhumanistic remedy. In other words : Kidneythieves is a cyber-organic trauma team, and, if you think that you are normal, then they will cure the holy fuck out of you. Read more to find out how.


The (not at all secret) zuppa weapon of this squad is the top of the food chain full female charm singing contributed by Free Dominguez. You can identify her dangerously borderline - in a positive manner, of course! - timber out of an infinite number of others, and it is of no surprise that an endless row of female performers seek to imitate her equally rabid and tender style, but she still packs the original "it" factor you CAN put your finger on : her singing voice simply brings everything you could hope for : she 1. Understands, and 2. goes Borderline, IF.

The music on Trypt0fanatic registers as a fresh, muscular, homogeneous fabric from top to bottom, and it is not (just) New Year's Eve beer-bias talking from me either, as the relatively short-but-intact playtime of 37 minutes enables the band to grace the listener with well-focused, legit Kidneythieves content, and the LP tells everything it needs to tell by its conclusion.

As for the global pacing of this ripe delivery, Trypt0fanatic almost exclusively is mid-tempo in character. The band transmits from a contemplative-, deeply emotional position that though remains absolutely free of slime, green goo and James LaBrie, courtesy of smart collision courses established between the vocals and the harmonic surroundings. Hooks are numerous, oftentimes br00tal like a hungry vampire's tenderness, and a good amount of those reek pure-gold classic Kidneythieves so efficiently that it commands crocodile tears in your eyes right away. Opening track "Jude" is similar in character - note : NOT a ripoff of! - to the band's earlier classic, "Crazy", for example. The intact-, timeless Kidneythieves deal of catchy, cybernetic borderline chorus and verse with an intent to go carnivore on your most comforting delusion, reigns in full effect. All in all, with their 2010 contribution Trypt0fanatic, Kidneythieves is as invigorated as ever, offering 10 (+bonus track) variant on the primer mood the LP is gravitating around.

Rating : 9.0 / 10



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Ceterum - Fathom review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Metal Math Metal with Djent elements
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.3 / 10

There are two immediate confessions that I have to make in this review : 1. I am not familiar with the music of Tool, 2. a good amount of Internet people - no one knows if those are real ones - claim that Ceterum's music sounds-, behaves a whole lot like that of Tool. Now that this recognition has been revealed, let's concentrate on the character of the music, which surely is something delicate to behold.

Ceterum sounds to be passionately disinterested of such classic elements of music as traditional time and orthodox song structures. Everything is permitted, even encouRAGED, if the results compliment the tall order of music that as easy and pleasant to grasp unto as hardly it seeks to elegantly and efficiently throw you off of its back.The rhythm work herein comes to you through intentionally and adeptly warped time signatures that are the magnificent workings of a steadily deranged cultist who seeks to master the Ultimate Doomsday Device 24/7 - and yes, you want to hear the music manufactured by such entity - and the resultant stimuli sounds to me as a more colorful take on the audio data Swedish Vildhjarta may have tried to do with their latest album that exhibits some similar basic characteristics to this one. I'm referring to the rhythmic work, exclusively. (Though I must say that recently I do discover some magical moments on the Vildhjarta album, but not as much as if I would find two times as many on it as I actually do.)

Ceterum's debut of 58 ripe and relentless odd music knows and tolerates no remote reminder of a filler or alibi build. The release is one raging, robust piece of constant sonic punishment, and it will kick your ass to hell and back. Read on to find out how.


Fathom is one debut that manages to keep its form intact all the way, always delivering what it does via simultaneous power, invention and efficiency. The central field of operations the release invites the stimuli into existence from is a submissive reliance on the supremely warped time signature as Entity, and the reason that this is working is none other than the mere tools of sonic ultramass-destruction the release compliments these hacked variants of time with. As for the speed, the debut shows a little bit above-mid-tempo temper throughout : the pacing never comes to a crawl, nor it emerges to claim the anti-diadem of a rocket powered world war tank that is about to end all wars. The tempo always is of such pacing that the fabric of the truly special rhythmic patterns emerge both as a pleasant challenge and a rewarding trait to relate to, to immerse yourself into.

Topple this beautifully erratic rhythmic behavior with a solid grasp of harmonic spellcasting, heavily fixated on the darker side of the related art. The guitars are mean, down tuned, dangerously flattered by a fat bass of genuine vile intent, and the resultant "wholesound" maintains a firm understanding of the most successful capacities it has at its disposal, keeping it away steadily from making bad decisions like going for the furious tempo for the mere sake of mispositioned variation. Once again, the release is more of an upper-mid-tempo admission of proper love resonated to a warped sense of dire time, supported by a vocal language that wisely satisfies as a passenger on-, as a complimenter of the ultramass the instrumental section rumbles through the listener as. This is not to say that the release lacks significant vocal offerings, quite the contrary : I especially am content with the choruses, - can't find anything wrong with the verses, either - it only is worth pointing out that the vocal presence of the record sounds to have a sober faithfulness to its life-giver harmonies, never seeking to stray away from those on a miscalculated attempt to deliver autonomously without the consent of the singularity-grade Master harmonies.

One thing I also am quite trustily happy and humpty dory about is the complete absence of mouth corner twitcher metalcore aspirations. Ceterum's debut is one of tremendous surprise power on the positive register, as the album never comes short of ideas safe and worthy to present, which enables them to stay away from sniffing shit around the saggy hide of family friendly metalcore. If you want to hear music with a whole lot of quality relevance going on through monstrous super-rhythms and cleverly restrained-, but powerful melodies, then obtaining this release for the listening enjoyment of your neighbors, your loved ones and yourself, is : mandatory.

Rating : 9.3 / 10

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Inelements - Post Stress review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Metal
Label : Independent
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Nobody steals Duke Nukem's chicks and lives, and nobody knows about this Colorado Springs based alternative metal band, which is something to be baffled about, considering the sheer melodic power of the formation's second full length delivery. The compact, musically informative YouTube video promoting this album - check it out here - is available to the public since August of 2011, and has collected 72 views to this very moment. Reality has performed an illegal operation and needs to be urgently rewritten, as this view count is unacceptably low. The sonic data on this LP is ridiculously and significantly good to regard this dire situation as passable, so this diligently nihilistic music review site Noise Shaft attempts to ease this unawareness-disease and seeks to direct all the attention it can towards this band and its latest album to date, because both the group and the LP deserve that, at the very least.

Inelements is an entity composed of two sub-entities. The first one is the band itself, and the other one is lead vocalist Steven Huckaby, who, fortunately enough, has a supremely well developed Mike Patton influence, and the whole album relentlessly reeks a pleasantly familiar Faith No More character through its favorite vocalic structures, and, through some of its primer emotional dispositions, even. Steven Huckaby has exceptional talent, his clean singing is brave, powerful, and his timber, while does not seek to mime Patton's sexily neurotic and neurotically sexy tendencies which I think people love Patton's clean singing voice for, works superbly when submits to the primordial-, anatomical traits of this approach. The name of this singing lingo mainly revolves around the huuuuuge, huge prolonged-sustained belted notes Huckaby pulls off with steady power and soul, - also totally free of the "lookicandothat!" fuckingdouchbag-factor like a deluded bathroom singer - combined with the "mere" note-passages the melodies roam through while colliding with the harmonic structures to support them from the background. Guys, let's talk about the music.


Being 9 seconds shy of 1 full hour of top of the food chain melodic stimuli, Post Stress is a thorough exploration of a dignified variant of deeply flamboyant metalcore even in the instrumental department, but, needless to say after the introduction of this review, the component that elevates this contribution well above its vastly more popular and vastly inferior peers, is the superb singing of Steve Huckaby, who reigns herein as the heart and soul of eleven strong compositions.

As for the anatomy of the music, I personally am totally humpty dory with the direction the compositions travel along, and there is only one caveat that I think is worth mentioning. This record features the metalcorish screamo methodology on frequent occasions, and I imagine that this approach is included as result of a conscious decision from the band to appeal to the angsty emo audience. The truth is though that the actual music on this record is so ripe and powerful that it reigns galaxies beyond the ultimate appeal of the retarded-ass screamo style, and the beauty herein needs not to bow down to such a vile criteria as to satisfy the cheap demands of shitsniffer screamo metalcore. But it bows down to this false, lobotomized king nevertheless, and everyone should forgive this, I think. Other than that, there is not a simple thing to whine about or form a complaint on regarding this luscious output. A very pleasant surprise from a very little known band. Inelement's Post Stress is a lush, soulfully aggressive AND very grateful record with crystal clear intents and top of the heat singing on it, and I think you need to check it out as soon as humanly possible. Or sooner.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

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Amantyde - Mädchen review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Metal
Label : Red Pony Records / Audioglobe
Origin : Italy
Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Amantyde's latest features an effect craver cover art and a lead singer chick who has the bar code sticker removed from her mouth already. This Italian act, for the most part, is a less aggressive variant on the music primarily proposed by bands like Kidney Thieves and Solsikk, and this conscious utilization - or, rather non-utilization - of less aggression and less adrenaline both make this release a solid "peaceful variant" on anxiety-fixated borderline metal music. One that exhibits a mid-tempo character, and shows no particular desire to communicate bloated boring misery via "radical" shortcut ways like the worthless fry screaming. While over-the-top raw intensity, one would think, is inherent to-, and a must for this genre of analogue alternative cyber metal, Amantyde's latest actually registers as a particularly strong LP despite its natural stance that knows and bows to no fixation of going speedy all the time. Which is somewhat of a trademark of this musical direction, as it becomes obvious when its absence emerges evident, courtesy of this Amantyde release. Read on to find out more about this fine contribution.


This LP, interestingly enough, has a capacity to reveal a blend of cybernetic industrial and hasty sludge at its core, - delicate chorus of track number 2 "Join Me In the Desert" is a great example to this, according to my personal percepts - and it never sinks into the need of the furious tempo in order to come through as a force you have to reckon with. Largely mid-paced in character, Amantyde's latest packs particular aptness to entertain the ears with soulful, relevant, delicious choruses, coming through as very efficient stimuli replacements to ease the burden on the verse as an entity. Not that it is anything wrong with the verses, either. Quite the contrary : this sounds to be a pretty song release from a musical point of view, with great awareness placed on playing through a good amount of sonic registers via changing keys flamboyantly and bravely in a way that the character/the message of the music still remains faithful to the general mood of inventive, colorful borderline comic angst. Which, to make this clear, is a very entertaining mood to be immersed in.

During this sexy spin, the intentions of the lead singer chick are quite easy to grasp. While her voice is somewhat generic female to me, - which would be the number 1 reason to kill if I would be a female singer, so excuse me - at least she does not delude herself into thinking that she needs to do THIS affectation or THAT mannerism to sound more like a borderline woman who is about to bite neighboring man noses off. Her affectations are absolutely minimal and well tamed if there is any surfacing at all, and there are compositions on this release that are pretty kickass contributions for the "mere" genre of analog cybernetic alternative metal they seek to inventively enrich. And with what superb efficiency! The chorus of track number 1, "Creepy Crowlies" is one Kidney Thieves' fronter Free Domninguez, too, would be glad to sing to you, and, amidst 6 or 7 more, one particular track also comes to mind that I find utterly relevant as it packs a great and successful summoning of what this genre wants. Track number 6, called "My Enemy" probably is the most aggressive one on the whole spin. Herein, a little distortion is applied on the voice of the lead singer girl, and a good verse gives place to a totally out of control chorus that I personally love, and I think you should check it out, too.

The weaker parts of this otherwise surprisingly likable and tight delivery are some relatively lame-, nevertheless entertaining verse structures, like in the otherwise pretty good song "Nothing But The Rain". In the verse, the lead singer chick delivers a performance of rapping/singing, kind of early Nina Hagen-like, only Nina Hagen is fucking borderline indeed, so you can imagine the difference. This album has a cover of the song called "Zombie" by the Cranberries, too. Regarding my percepts of this cover, I totally like how they approach the song : they are giving it the relentless metal heft, and the song likes it tremendously.

Amantyde's Mädchen is a brave, musically inventive package that has all the chance in the whole wide world to grow on you to make you more, courtesy of its abundant supply of legit, exigent musical hooks and well articulated compositional ideas. I'm especially happy to see the band's decision of coming forth with 39 minutes of legit music than coming forward with 5 minutes of delicacy riding on top of oceanic mediocrity. Hopefully, that never ever happens again, and this would be a solid night wish, as well. Blehe. I'm a snob and I dare say that you can't go wrong with this Italian analogue cybernetic borderline alternative metal delivery. You want this.

Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Chevelle - Hats Off To The Bull review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Hard Rock
Label : Epic
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.0

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Chevelle's latest delivery called Hats Off To The Bull brings clever, accessible song writing that manages to remain original, melodic and meaningful despite its consorting-, relative radio-friendliness. It is important to note though that this band does not at all seek to be radio friendly for being nothing beyond that, like the latest Nickelback LP of devoted shitsniffing aims to. Here is a review of that shitsniffer Nickelback release.

Chevelle, luckily enough, is putting out much more serious and ripe music, that, despite growing more and more gloomy in character in my opinion as the spin progresses, never loses its focus for the strong melody, the fat, meaty harmony and the tight, straightforward production. A particular set of mood-similarities surface to the receptors during this delivery, and you will need to read on to find out more about these sublime reflections.


Chevelle sounds to me like an elegant blend of the following remote-, and very inventively cultivated influences : a little bit of Cure, - especially because of the lead vocalist's soulful upper-mid timber - a little bit of Mastodon, a little bit of The Killers. The character of the fabric mainly is welterweight-, but at heart restrained hard rock wit not much intent to crush you proper, as the emotion behind the builds, as hinted, is more often of a lamenting character of inner struggles, rendered by clean vocal work that is on a continuously inventive presentation of collision courses occurring between this lead singing and the fat harmonies. It seems safe to say that, though everything is straightforward on the release in the sense that you immediately know what to do with the current element you are subjected to, it takes you, the listener and itself seriously, and features no element whatsoever that would lack the melodic/harmonic elegance which is a primer attitude of this fine contribution.

With 42 minutes of program time, Chevelle's latest gives out a quite well balanced initial flow, which later on consciously ventures for a more sorrowful direction, but honesty and heart are never left behind during this impressive run. The verse and hook as separate entities both are capable to give something extra when measured to the other, which is especially rare and a definite treat to witness. This is very easily accessible, and, regardless : likable music in its nature, and your probable attitude towards it will likely depend on the feelings it is able to invoke from you right at the very first seconds of its respective elements. That particular feeling of relative gloom that I think the album is becoming prominent of during the climax, is quite inventively presented all the way through, and the LP remains a solid, tight delivery with no blemishes or hindrances worth mentioning or seeking for. Once again : it is all up to the personal calibration of your nervous system if you will like it or like it very much, - disliking this album sounds totally idiotic to be honest - because, if your heart speaks the same mood-language the album does, then this probably is the best album of the year for you. As for me, a damn fine welterweight release, say I.

Rating : 9.0 / 10

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Disturbed - The Lost Children review

Year : 2011
Genre : Alternative Bubblegum Metal
Label : Reprise
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.9 / 10

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Disturbed's latest studio release to hit a shelf near you is a compilation packed with the b-side delicacies the band has delivered throughout its popular career. Welcome to the Hubba Bubba side of Heavy! Metal!, bitches.

Lost Children has scary children on the cover, and the Disturbed dude, who is the Creator of these dire abominations, and the image is doing a decent job at serving out your affection for all things badass and scary. One thing this time travel medley is superbly efficient at, is to familiarize the virgin ear with the primer characterology of the music Disturbed is fond to put out. We are talking about a smile-worthily accessible kind of metal that attempts to establish a well researched - and also very self-repetitious - balance between grooves relying on syncopated chug-fixation and relatively cheese-free power metal, while the aspiration to invite the monumental hook-chorus - sometimes with great-, sometimes with mild success - also could regard itself as a constant ritual that is about to be resonated per song for sure. If you were curious about what the deal is regarding Disturbed's character and related popularity, then this compilation album might be your best bet to find that out. Read on to - sorry about that - read more about this Hubba Bubba bubblegum metal compilation.


The Lost Children is an informative selection with a healthy, dynamic character and tempo to it, and, fortunately enough, it also is efficient at strolling along the different modal registers the band is fond submitting to. Disturbed sounds to have three primal behaviors, and, as hinted, the album is quick to reach the point of virtual self-repetition. Worry not : the bubblegum still remains enjoyable, and here is why : the taste is long gone, but you can still chew. During the verses, the vocals tend to have a tribal rhythmization, giving you the "neanderthal within" vibe, then you have a pre-, and/or a breakdown, and THEN the chorus with the clean singing.

Though the band's technique to trade microwave groove-intensity to accessible quasi-power metal lira and vice versa is absolutely undeniable, the tracks remain super-prone to exhibit the same compositional methods being utilized in their respective fabrics. The singer dude sounds to have 2-3 - and not more - favorite ways to deliver a melody on top of a chug, then, he descends from top to the bottom while touching every note two times during the pre, and finally you have the chorus with the Phil Collins on steroid-like clean singing, which sounds pretty cool to be honest. I think the chorus of opening track "Hell" is superb, and also think that the album draws somewhat of a downward spiral during its spin. The Faith No More and Judas Priest covers at the end of the album stand out like twin peaks of Mountains of Madness in the bubblegum-mudpile the album finally collapses to without them. This is accessible metal with SHORT glances of brilliant songwriting, but its most dominant character sounds to come through as its own dormant-, nevertheless rampant agenda to entertain you solely with the variation of the one single trick it is primarily centered around. The same structure is served over and over and over again, but that exactly what chewing is about. Once again : there are moments I love on this record, and so much more I can't tell you anything about, because they put me to hypersleep.

Rating : 6.9 / 10

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