Hour of Penance: Sedition (2012)

Kicks Your Ass for Half an Hour

Review by Metallattorney. He is the law.

Hour of Penance is another band that really does technical death metal well. They combine brutality with technicality with some fantastic results, ending up sounding like a more technical version of Nile. The brutality never lets up on this album either. Hour of Penance kick things into high gear in the second track, after a melodic introduction, and never lose their energy. The result is a punishing and intense album that threatens to crush the skull for about a half an hour or so before it is finally over. The only reprieves are the few seconds in between tracks.

What Hour of Penance do well on this release though is to weave some incredibly melodic guitar leads throughout the otherwise colossally heavy riffing. And the lead guitar has a terrific tone to it as well, adding to the distinctiveness. It is almost beautiful in an otherwise ugly sound.

Skeletonwitch: Forever Abomination (2011)

Review

Athens, Ohio is known for three things: being a college town (and therefore home to hipsters), the former site of Midget Motors Corporation, and the home of one of the Midwest's most treasured metal bands, Skeletonwitch. They released their fourth full-length this year in Forever Abomination.

The album does not bring anything new to the table. This is clearly Skeletonwitch-brand blackened thrash, with short, fast-paced thrash attacks with some blackened riffing and rasped vocals. It's raw, pure, and simple. If it ain't broke, as they say.

Trap Them: Darker Handcraft (2011)

Review

Trap Them's third album Darker Handcraft was one of the most anticipated albums of the year. The band was definitely not on my radar before seeing all the hype, and that's for an obvious reason: they're not a metal band.

Trap Them play a style of punk combining crust punk, hardcore, and grindcore. I honestly know very little about any of these genres, aside from the places where they cross into metal territory. Metal and punk have had a long conversation, beginning at least as early as Motörhead. This album is similar enough to metal in a lot of ways that someone outside the world of punk or metal would be confused about the distinction. It's aggressive, riff-based music, and it's far heavier than most punk I've ever heard. But it's different enough from my beloved metal that I hardly feel qualified to write this review.

Withered: Dualitas (2010)

Review

One of the most interesting developments in metal recently has been the combination of two polar opposites: sludge metal and black metal. The former, heavy, slow, and warm. The latter, trebly, fast, and cold. And the thing about new genres and subgenres is, one of the first bands on the scene is almost always the best one. Blackened sludge, thy name is Withered.

Opener "Extinguished with the Weary" sets the stage, starting out with blast beats and all-out tremolo riffing, then slowing down into melodic sludge. It shows you something new, a band that combines Georgia sludge with black metal (to my mind, it seems to be specifically the Norwegian variety, i.e., as polar opposite as you can get from Georgia sludge). The drumming varies from blast beats to Kylesa-esque rhythms, and the sludge-oriented bass is prominent in the mix. Vocals vary from deep, sludge-inflected death growls to black metal screeches.

But the guitars are something truly unique. Somehow, they've combined the sounds of sludge and black metal, keeping the sludgy reverb and heaviness while adding that misanthropic, evil quality of black metal. The riffs can be Confederate, Scandinavian, or southern played in a northern style.

The music gets its juiciest when they let the two styles contrast, as at the end of "Residue in the Void" where they play a sludge riff over blast beats. The highlight of the album, "From Shadows", has a riff that's (Static Tensions era) Kylesa or Baroness-like, but it never loses its blackened feel. And every track is worthwhile, including the droning (headphones-essential) interlude and outro.



The Verdict: Will it spawn a legion of imitators? Probably. This is an exciting development in metal, but for now it's almost entirely unique. It's a convincing combination of things I wouldn't have thought could be combined. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Neuraxis: Asylon (2011)

Review

When I think of technical death metal, I generally think of two camps. There's the Necrophagist camp of highly polished complexity, sort of like a brutal version of Dream Theater, if you don't mind the unorthodox comparison. And then there's the Suffocation camp, utterly without polish and with an impenetrable sound. But lately, some have been forging their own path. Canada's Neuraxis is one of them.

Despite the fact that two of the band's members are named Olivier, and the other two have names that could be mistaken for girls' names (like my own), there is absolutely nothing girly or sissy about Asylon. Neuraxis plays what is essentially old school death metal, with a filthy and brutal sound. The only difference is, the riffs they play have a lot of notes, and they're played with precision. Even without polished production, the performance is spot-on virtuosity, and it's amazing.

Every member holds their own technically, despite rapid changes in pace and riff, and they all perform with conviction. Especially worthy of note are Alex LeBlanc's death growls, which easily stand up to comparisons with Mikael Åkerfeldt, Peter Tägtgren, or any other fantastic death growler you could think of.

Not only do they have the style, production, and chops, but they also have the songs. These songs have barbed hooks that dig in, do their damage, and don't let go. "Asylum" and "Savior & Destroyer" are particularly worthy of note, the latter having a melodic riff that may draw comparisons to Decrepit Birth. "Purity" feels like an epic because of its sound and structure, despite its short length. And the whole album clocks in at a satisfying 39 minutes, so it's satisfying but doesn't overstay its welcome.

The Verdict: This is a fantastic album that feels like old-school death metal played in a technical style, with everything you could possibly want. It's still early in the year, but this is the best album so far. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Dragged into Sunlight: Hatred for Mankind (2009)

Review

This is the perfect album for Valentine's Day, as you can no doubt guess from the cover art. I can say without any hesitation that Dragged into Sunlight's debut album was the most brutal album released in 2009. Their name makes me think of one of the most brutal vampire movies ever, John Carpenter's excellent Vampires, where the bloodsuckers are shot with a crossbow and violently dragged by winch into the sun, where they explode into flame. And these are not pussy, sparkly vampires either. These vampires are kvlt. Just like the gentlemen in Dragged into Sunlight.

Hatred for Mankind combines every kind of extreme you could possibly think of, starting with a base of sludge/deathgrind and adding elements of black metal, doom, deathcore, and even drone. It sounds as if these Liverpudlians were raised in the dark, on a steady diet of Incantation, Eyehategod, Napalm Death, and snippets of TV news about the worst sins of mankind. The vocals absolutely seethe with rage, including death growls and black metal screeches. The voice samples actually seem to work, being an integral part of their sound.

Opener "Boiled Angel" sets the stage, beginning with heavy, aggressive sludge and a voice sample. It switches to New York death metal-like mid-paced fare with constant bass drum, then they throw in some grind leads. Then they let the feedback ring out on the guitar while bass drives it forward, along with voice samples, before moving back into sludge territory. The whole album is essentially like this, moving from one territory to another, such as the slow sludge, to black metal blast beats and tremolo riffing, to badass breakdown on "Lashed to the Grinder and Stoned to Death".

And they manage to do all of it without seeming like it's stitched together. They never find themselves wholly in one genre or another, but rather all of them are present more or less all the time, and one riff might be more in one camp than another. The tempo changes often, but effortlessly, and all of it flows.

The production is a bit flawed, however. When they hit their noisiest and most brutal moments, the recording gets blown out. It's not terrible, but it can be distracting. They also could have done without the last two tracks. While they're not afraid to write long songs (highlight "Volcanic Birth" goes over 9 minutes), they do it well when they stick with what they do best. On the other hand, "I, Aurora" is over 11 minutes, and seems to have a more epic structure and feel. But they just can't seem to pull it off. And drone closer "Totem of Skulls" doesn't really add anything. Still, if you drop these you still have a 34 minute exercise in brutality.



The Verdict: This is an extremely impressive and innovative debut, with the most brutal sound I've heard in quite some time. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Holy Grail: Crisis in Utopia (2010)

Review

Holy Grail is a California traditional metal band formed by three former members of White Wizzard. Crisis in Utopia is their first full-length, and it demonstrates the band has everything it could ever possibly need to start filling stadiums in a few years. Perfect production? Check. Memorable riffs? Check. Catchy choruses? Check. Crowd-pleasing vocal technique? Check.

Their style is instantly recognizable as traditional heavy metal, influenced by all the usual suspects. It's not quite over the top either--I'd say it's right at the top. They never turn into a joke, like most others in the trad metal revival (I'm looking at you, Enforcer). You probably won't notice the bass, and the drums are basically here to keep it moving forward. The real stars here are guitar and vocals.

First, the guitars. The pace ranges from middle to fast, and the riffs are memorable (especially check out "The Blackest Night"). Occasional pinch harmonics are thrown in, and the solos tend toward the neoclassical; I'd never say they shred (no Zakk Wylde in the bunch) but they can definitely play their instruments. Give them another album or two of experience, and I would expect these twin axes to chop off some heads.

The vocals are both an asset and a liability. The backup vocals provide the very occasional growl, which doesn't really hurt or help anything, it's just there. On the lead vocal front, Luna's talent is undeniable, in range (Halford-esque), lyrical content (Vikings and battle), and the ability to write a stadium-ready shout-along hook ("Rage! Fire! Born of your desire!"). If you're not singing "Run your sword through the enemy!" by the end of "Call of Valhalla", you might want to turn in your metalhead badge right now. On the other hand, his throaty, high singing has a bit too much resemblance to the douche from Avenged Sevenfold. It's never bad, by itself, and if that band had never existed it probably wouldn't bother anyone. But at times (e.g. the title track) it's hard to shake that impression.



Still, if you can get past that, it's hard not to sing along. It will probably broaden their appeal to a more mainstream audience, potentially making them the next gateway drug of choice to more extreme things. And thankfully, none of the music is remotely metalcore.

The Verdict: Holy Grail has a hell of a lot of potential, and Crisis in Utopia is a fun listen. It's not perfect, but it's one of the best trad metal debuts in a while. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Skeletonwitch: Beyond the Permafrost (2007) Review

Metallattorney introduced me to Skeletonwitch, a band from Athens, Ohio, USA with an unapologetically old school extreme metal approach to things. I picked up their 2007 sophomore release Beyond the Permafrost.

Like many albums I've reviewed, these guys are a little tough to really pin down in terms of genre. Many have called them a melodic death / thrash metal band, drawing apt comparisons to At the Gates's classic Slaughter of the Soul. While this is a good description, I think it's more fitting to call them a thrash metal band with some death metal influences (the latter mostly confined to the vocals and drums). The sound, to me, seems about two parts Dark Angel's Time Does Not Heal with one part Death's Leprosy.

The songs are compact, mostly hovering around three minutes in length, and largely they don't go under 99 miles an hour. Because of the speed and economy of the arrangements, and the generous helping of guitar solos, there is not a dull moment on the album.



Like other practitioners of retro metal (such as The Sword), they have also injected the retro flavor into the way they recorded the songs, for good or ill. The performances are extremely raw, retaining the energy and brutality of of a live recording--something which can be lost if you insist on a note-perfect mix. There is also a sense that they are using vintage equipment, either in their amps or recording equipment.

The Verdict: Skeletonwitch perfectly captures the metal attitude of two decades past, from their name to their album art to their music, but does so without merely rehashing what's been done before. It does lack a little polish, though. I wish they could have managed to get note-perfect recordings while still retaining the high energy level; others have managed to do it. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

After writing this, I went back to reread MetallAttorney's review, and am surprised by how similar my take is.