Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Call ov Unearthly - Blast Them Away (2012)

   Call ov Unearthly formed in 2005, but their full-length debut came out only in 2012 which is (except a demo compilation) their one and only album so far. But meanwhile 2 of their members played in a band called Ulcer Uterus too, that also played brutal death and had the same style.
   The music of both Ulcer Uterus and Call ov Unearthly wore the marks of the technical brutal death era of the mid '00s, and both bands practiced the style with excellence, releasing high quality records. The influences of bands like Vital Remains, Dying Fetus and Vader could be easy to discover in their music, especially Vader's influence by their simple song structures that are mainly relying on the overwhelming effect of frequently appearing and long lasting blast beats. These also serving as a unifying feature, giving frames firm as rock for all songs. At one hand it's advantageous, cause despite the technical or often switching guitar themes the unified sound never gets even slightly broken. But the other thing is, that the same time this solution cuts off any further possibilities to sound different, or to express anything else. Moreover there have been a nearly endless line of bands from the mid '00s whose music relied on the same thing, and it became challenging to identify certain specific features that could have served as differences between the music of these bands- if there was any. These could have been the main indicators why many of these bands tried to involve music such elements or very different music features and influences that had nothing to do with brutal death or with metal in general (Fleshgod Apocalypse for instance). The other way was to go in production quality as high as possible, such as Call ov Unearthly did. However, until the late '00s both paths had tremendous amounts of bands, and the whole technical / progressive brutal death wave was collapsed and forced into background. Therefore "Blast Them Away" was a late came release from this perspective, but illustrates well the several years earlier tendencies of the extreme underground. For brutal death fans this short, but purely devastating album might be strongly enjoyable.

Monday, June 30, 2025

Embrional - Absolutely Anti-Human Behaviours (2012)

   Embrional formed in 2003, and probably the nearly decade long period until their full-length debut wasn't passively spent, since "Absolutely Anti-Human Behaviours" became a musically quite mature and strong record.
   Their music had both technical and brutal death influenced tendencies. This alongside some very familiar guitar themes, album's sterile sound and the vocal style strongly reminded to early Immolation. Despite the returning references, the endeavours of creating their own specific sound could be sensed, mainly by their experiments of various song structures. In total the mix of the continuously coming diverse themes and sudden, frequent tempo switches resulting some pretty crazy main impression. But all compositions turned out so well, that it makes questionable if the band truly just experimented with the whole thing, or everything was so well written and calculated. Quite often it feels like if the main leads just trying to break the unity of the songs to live their own lives, but the some balance always keeps returning in some form - by a sharp riff, or by insane hammering, or even by a calm and slow melody. So actually it sounds like if the disharmony would get broken frequently by balance. The great variety of themes and musical solutions at one hand making the album challenging to go into, but the same time they having unifying effect. In general the production is great and all-round high quality, from sound to visual elements. The only thing that could keep "Absolutely Anti-Human Behaviours" from the masterpiece status is the too evident and frequently returning Immolation influence, cause it might take too much from the music's genuineness. But for prejudiced Immolation fans and for those who prefer insane brutality in any form, this is a must-listen-to album.

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Assumption - Mosaic of the Distant Dominion (2012)

   Similar to Into Darkness, Assumption also debuted with a stunning demo with great sound and production quality. 
   Unlike most death/doom bands, their music might be difficult to sort to either of the two most common directions of the genre (the audience friendlier romance based, mainly melancholic direction, or the less popular, rough, classic form of death/doom). It does include some features from both, since melancholy and melodic themes having determining role, and very heavy approach is also usual, especially alongside the vocal parts. Funeral doom influences are significant, and in this mixed form the demo might keep reminding to Esoteric. However, Assumption didn't go too deep into elemental heaviness, and the combination of the mentioned features are not resulting something such complex, and endlessly desperate feeling like Esoteric does. The way how the band composed their songs, sounds more careful, that could have happened for two possible reasons. They could have focused more on keeping some balance, cause balance they've found the most reasonable tool to frame together various influences. Or in their early, still kinda experimenting period they just didn't want to go too far into any specific directions. The main impression is therefore softer and more moderate compared to most death/doom of funeral doom bands, but the mentioned balance also generates some elegance, that refuses to merge too deep into the dirty filth of depressive depths.

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Into Darkness - Into Darkness (2012)

   Since in the late '00s it became widespread that demo releases often having so great sound quality like ordinary album releases, and sometimes even sounding better than some (black metal) studio records. This tendency had stimulus effect by the way more enjoyable sound quality, cause more fans became interested to add demos into their collections, and it wasn't only the intention of the most obsessed collectors anymore. Furthermore, demos started to have further releases, on CD and vinyl too. The same happened with Into Darkness' first demo, even though it was basically released on tape by following pretty old school fashion.
   Not only it's sound, but the music in general had made it reasonable that the interest kept staying around the self-titled demo. The band operated with quite simple, repetitive themes, but they've been embedded into such catchy sludgy / blackened atmosphere, that the main impression didn't become monotonous. Also the mixed influences had quite good and (according to this musically minimalist style) diverse effect. Similar to old school death/doom bands, their music doesn't lack intensity either, in the second and fourth songs they show, that slow, heavy themes and devastating speed do not exclude each other. Maybe because some specific features, like the basic themes, the higher toned female vocal style and the almost narrative vocal performance, their music might remind to Mythic. But Into Darkness is far not that primitive and their music is introducing a wider perspective to the listener. Since it was not only a pretty stunning demo for a debut, but musically diverse too, it could become a potential favorite for wider extreme music fan audiences too. 

Saturday, June 21, 2025

shEver - Rituals (2012)

   By their second full length album, shEver continued their journey on the not too intentional path of death/doom with occult and depressive touch. 
   Probably the most remarkable feature of the album compared to "Ocean of Illusions" is the way better sound. At one hand it's quite advantageous for the selected style, cause heavy themes could easier prevail by clean sound. While in case of too noisy sound they losing from their effectiveness, often could have dull impression, and noise itself taking the determining role. At the other hand, if the band previously called their music sludge metal influenced, they should take it back if it's about "Rituals". Clean sound could neutralize the essence of sludgy elements, just as it happens here, because dirty, noisy, sound is one of the most basic requirements to sound sludgy. However, it works great, and makes the ominous feeling even more enjoyable than ever. If it's about themes, it could be sensed, that the band tried to experiment with something different than before, to involve more melodic, and the same time strongly melancolic parts. On the side of expressing depressive feelings, the occult, witchy tone was also intended to keep, but if it's about the implementation, the band seemed a bit idefinitive, like if they haven't been sure how to manage the whole thing. There are plenty of catchy heavy themes and musical solutions to hear on the record, but because of the mentioned experimenting ambitions, the album gets tired at the end. The band slipped with previously so well kept balance on the last two songs, and they became so weird like if they were not even planned for the same album like the previous songs, or if they haven't been ready yet. Except this 16 minutes long not so fitting weirdness (or wyrdness), "Ritual" is a great death/doom record, strongly recommended for the fans of the genre!

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Intractable - Inner Decay (2012)

   Intractable's one and only full-length album was on the border of old school and new wave tendencies. The interesting paradox about "Inner Decay" was, that even though the two directions the band merged are quite relatable, the audiences of these specific scenes are rarely covering each other.
   Despite Intractable's music definitely had '90s roots, the result sounds quite mid-late '00s influenced. It could be for two possible reasons. First, the groovy thrash metal they played have very similar influences like what metalcore had basically. Since metalcore on the side of major hardcore and groove metal elements also included some simplified "dummy" form of thrash metal, it might be not a surprising outcome if groove/thrash ends up sounding similar to metalcore. The other, maybe even more possible reason is the band members direct influences came by the actual scene, that they most possibly had in the '00s. That decade was also about the fast rising and spreading of metalcore, and even though Intractable preferred thrash hammering instead of melodic switches, their music still had the same '00s hardcore/metalcore touch. The lyrical concept of social criticism is compatible with both styles, therefore it could serve as a unifying bond between, if such a thing is needed on the side of musical analogy. "Inner Decay" might be compatible with both thrash metal and hardcore / metalcore audiences, it's definitely mosh pit suitable music.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Atomwinter - Atomic Death Metal (2012)

   Atomwinter came out with a stunning debut in 2012, that could all-round fit to the definition of old school death metal. It doesn't offer anything more or less, but still, it might worth to take a closer look (or listen).
   Nobody could say that the early '10s lacked new old school death metal releases, thanks to the actual tendencies of the underground. "Atomic Death Metal" sounded like intending to recall the basic impression of the genre by it's simple and mainly groovy themes, middle speed, and frequent switches to thrash hammering. Fortunately they didn't go too far with the groovy parts, and the theme and speed switches are always timed good and frequent enough to not let the album to slip into boredom. Even though simplicity and essential features might be the the most determining description for the record, the band operated with them quite well to validate the old rule: "less is more". The themes are catchy enough, and an expected upcoming theme or speed switch will always occur before anything would turn too monotonous. Their influences could be various, but most possibly the mix of the Tampa Florida and Swedish death metal scenes. The concept is also usual, just a reintroduction of something in a way that have been proven in the past countless times that it could work well that way, carried out with "Deutsche Genauigkeit".