Amnion/Balmog: Grim Repulse of the Southern Lodge (2013)

Spanish Black Split

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

I really enjoy splits. They are an excellent way to discover new music from a couple of different bands in one place. I usually prefer them when there are more than one song from each band on the split, as is the case with this one. No matter though. Amnion and Balmog are two black metal bands from Spain. Spain has quietly developed a fairly impressive black metal scene.

Amnion is a bit of a mysterious band. I can not find much current information on the band. This song is very dark. It is particularly hateful styled black metal. Nothing pretty about it. The drums are a bit too high in the mix and there is nothing remarkable about the instrumentation or vocals. The riffing gets a little repetitive at times and the song kind of drags toward the end. This really is not anything terribly new.

Survival v. Desagravio

Post-Apocalyptic Bukkake

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TotalRust was one of the first labels to reach out and develop a relationship with this blog, so I always look forward to getting mail from Israel. They’ve been consistently sending me physical promos for a while now, some excellent (Botanist), some great (Lurk), a few not so good (Shever), and a whole lot somewhere in between.

My most recent Israeli post contained new records from Highgate and Lords of Bukkake. The two bands have a common genre and label, so I’ve decided to resurrect the X v. Y format to compare and contrast the sludge/doom albums Survival and Desagravio.

Kentucky’s Highgate contributed one of the first batch of promos I got from TotalRust, a compilation of their earlier material. It impressed me with “bile-filled vocals” and other blackened touches. This time they have improved production, so they sound heavier. And, there’s a noticeable change of style. All three tracks have an air of brooding melancholy, served well by the production if not by the vocal style. They’ve got the good sense to keep things dynamic, starting out slow but changing rhythm patterns and tempo often enough to make it interesting. The first two tracks are pretty good, but it’s not until closer “Nachwirkungen/Survival” that they get really good, playing with feedback and throwing in a rising tremolo-picked lead. At 20 minutes it accounts for nearly half the album, so on balance I’d say they did a fine job here.

Metal Briefs: Up the Irons!

Iron: The Original Black Metal

Briefs by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

Iron “is the most common element (by mass) forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. . . Iron metal has been used since ancient times.” Add the right amount of carbon, and iron “produces steel, which may be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron.” These “[s]teels and low carbon iron alloys … are by far the most common metals in industrial use, due to their great range of desirable properties and the abundance of iron.”*

So too is “Iron” the most common word in my iTunes metal library, a search of which results in six different artists, 39 different albums, and a whopping 420 songs. Certainly, iron has been employed “since ancient [metal] times” being wielded to all time heavy metal thunder perfection by Iommi and co way back in 1970 – “Iron Man” practically started it all.

And now, thanks to the FULL METAL ATTORNEY, I have three more Iron Bands: Iron Curtain, Iron Dogs, and Iron Kobra. Certainly these bands recognized that Iron is “by far the most common [of the] metals in [] use, due to their great range of desirable properties.” And we get some great, some desireable, and some that need work in this range of Iron metal products.

Let’s start with the great. Iron Curtain hail from Spain and play straight up heavy metal. There’s nothing new on "Road to Hell", and that’s the point. Releases like this live and die by how well they execute. How well they execute is usually a byproduct of how much they love what they are doing. Iron Curtain love what they are doing. They are doing it well. I will play “Taste My Whip”, “Scream & Shout”, “Black Fist” and “Marshall Law” over and over as much for their clever word play as for their memorable choruses and ripping solos. “Road to Hell” is the best produced of these three and Iron Curtain don’t waste that production with pointless intros or interludes. They were “Ready to Strike” and get to the point. A lesson many bands would do well to heed. 4 out of 5 stars.

Necroven: Worship of Humiliation (2012)

Worship the Occult

Guest review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

Occult death metal is a style that has remained underground out of necessity. To say that the style is extreme is a massive understatement. Though it formed from the music of Morbid Angel, Incantation, and Immolation, it has progressed beyond even those dark and sinister boundaries that those bands pushed. This is evil music.

Necroven is an occult death metal band in the vein of Drawn and Quartered, Angelcorpse, Nox, Lecherous Nocturne, and other much more underground bands. The riffs are jagged and distorted. The drumming is typically blastbeat-driven though not entirely. The production is fairly murky but not to the extent that the music can not be heard. A lot of other occult death metal bands make the mistake of having too muddy of production and it all sounds like a sloppy mess. This is not pristine, but at least everything can be heard. It is the kind of production that sounds best with this music. The vocals are incredibly deep.

Ataraxy: Revelations of the Ethereal (2012)

Old School or Death

Guest review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

I had previously pointed out that some death metal just has such an intense, filthy, otherworldly quality that makes it a ton of fun to listen to. I then pointed out a number of groups who had this unknown quality to just put out some amazing death metal. Well add Ataraxy to that list. This is the debut album for the Spanish death metal band and they truly do an amazing job on this release. Ataraxy will definitely be a band to continue watching.

I suppose the best point of reference for a sound is The Chasm along with Asphyx. The guitar tone here is incredible. It is crunchy and gives off a sinister and evil atmosphere. This is definitely an old-school death metal sounding album but at the same time, it sounds fresh. It is not stale, cookie-cutter death metal at all. Ataraxy do their best to craft their own sound, one not done thousands of times before.

Mass Burial: Of Carrion and Pestilence (2012)

Swedish Spaniards

Guest review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

It is entirely possible that Mass Burial has heard of the Swedish death metal scene. And that would be a huge understatement. Mass Burial is dripping with the buzzsaw Swedish death metal riffing sound. The band does one hell of a job at re-capturing the glory that was the early days of Entomed, Dismember, and more. Which is okay, because I am a huge fan of that particular sound. Unfortunately there have been a lot of bands aping the style over the last few years and it is getting a little ridiculous. So a band that wants to play that style had better do something good with it in order to stand out.

Tort: Tort (2012)

Sadly, Not a Concept Album about Medical Malpractice

Tort's self-titled debut is the final album out of three submitted to me by TotalRust. I question a few things about this one. First of all, their logo looks a lot like the Blair Witch's symbol, so I guess there's that. But mostly I question their name. I'm all about the legal thing--I am Full Metal Attorney, after all--but why name yourself after the term for a civil wrong? Were "Sin" and "Crime" too obvious?

Anyway, the Spanish band has a good sound. When you compare them directly to Weedeater, you'll see a lot of similarities, including the fuzzy, heavy sound and the raspy vocals. It illustrates how blurry the line can be between sludge and stoner doom, with Tort being the former, on balance.