VAMPILLIA: "Rule the World / Deathtiny Land"

Often when bands deliberately try to be avant-garde, weird, posing in oh so crazy masks in promo pictures, I have zero interest to look into the band. This was also the case with Vampillia’s recent EP, Rule the World / Deathtiny Land, but fortunately I eventually checked it out in spite of all reservations, because it turned out to be quite a beautiful journey through various (and mixed) emotions.

Most importantly, it’s the orchestral parts of the EP that truly stand out, being really intricate and well executed pieces. An easy example could be the classical ”One Day I Thought the World...” and ”Made My Mind to Dominate...” followed by the climatic post-rock ”Day of Departure...” that also incorporates the first signs of metal. But the metal is always in minor role, the soundscape being dominated by orchestral string instruments, clean female singing and some male grunting. The songs are really brief, some lasting mere fifteen seconds, ”Switch and Bomb / Melody Tinborn” running for only four seconds. This all reminds me of Diabolical Masquerade’s Death’s Design combined with Fantômas. Then there’s the rhythmic ”A Deceptive Attack...” that jams like a track from Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s some solo album.

A lot of ideas have been packed into this short 25-minute whole, making Rule the World / Deathtiny Land seem first really incoherent, passing from an ear to another, hence multiple listens are required for proper comprehension. The EP might not be entirely mindblowing but definitely a worthwile effort crafted with care and vision, also the rather low fidelity sound fits the flowing atmosphere of the record: the last thing this would need is a mood-killing sterile production. No explanations needed, this will most likely appeal to fans of a heavy avant-garde touch in their metal.

3.5 / 5

SATAN'S HOST: "By the Hands of the Devil"

Having gone through various phases during its lengthy career, from the classic heavy metal of late 80s to the blackened death metal of late 2000s, Satan’s Host is now back with the original singer from Metal from Hell era, namely Harry Conkling. The result on By the Hands of the Devil is something like a mix of the two previous approaches, combining the darkness and Satanism of black metal and heaviness of death metal with Conkling’s clean heavy/power metal vocals.

And quite an interesting and successful combo it is. There are few bands who truly interest me in the field of power metal singing, but when it’s mixed with the utterly dark instrumentation and atmosphere, it all works. The eponymoys ”By the Hands of the Devil” makes sure of this already with its adventurous song progressions and epic chorus. Other noteworthy mentions of the album’s first half are ”Demontia” and the interlude-of-sorts ”Bleeding Hearts of the Damned”, the latter being a hypnotic, ritualistic and beautiful wandering amidst clean guitars and tom drums. I’m not able to spot as good tracks on the second half, but The Beatles cover ”Norwegian Wood” is a little surprise there, being an upbeat and folkish piece with church burning lyrics. I drank of the blood, Dark Lord Satan...

With a modern and in-your-face clean production, and an overdose of rather clinical and unnecessarily precise blast beats, By the Hands of the Devil might not have the charm of the scruffy Metal from Hell that I personally really like, but this album is clearly a well-thought whole that maybe runs for a little too long, but comprises some quite damn good compositions nonetheless. This could turn into a vital record for some of those who merely enjoy the most extreme of metals and despise classic high-pitched clean singing, because his/her opinion might just change after hearing By the Hands of the Devil. The album has been in relatively frequent rotation and will continue to do so - a sign of a good record.

3 / 5

HYPERBOREAN: "The Spirit of Warfare"

As a heavy consumer of hissing, dusty black metal tape demos, polished and melodic black metal has never triggered any proper interest in me. But if the former was always done as successfully as on Hyperborean’s The Spirit of Warfare, my general opinion would most likely change.

The most important thing is that Hyperborean doesn’t even try to sound really evil and morbid, hence the clear sound fits the soundscape which is laden with lead melodies à la Horn, though it could be better to mention some death metal bands at this point, since The Spirit of Warfare, with its myriad of melodies, could be seen better as a death- than black metal album, also due to its adventurous song progressions that are quite far from cold and monotonous black metal. However, one can still notice a clear Dissection influence running through the album’s veins.

At its best, The Spirit of Warfare is on ”Weapon Mankind” where a solid piano melody and emotional tremelo guitars work together beautifully, and another highlight is the ten-minute centerpiece ”The Last Stand of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylaye” that focuses more on creating atmosphere - with the help of subtle synths - rather than tight guitarwork. What comes to the album’s negative sides, there’s the production that, even if I can accept the overall clear sound, could sound more full, as right now there’s a slight lack of bass guitar and the drums are somewhat plastic.

It’s not that The Spirit of Warfare changes my life nor my general impression of melodic black metal, but it’s the kind of album that I really enjoy listening to every now and then, thus deserving a favorable rating. I could see The Spirit of Warfare as an ideal album for someone not really into black metal, as his first steps towards an explorable genre. And, logically, those merely into the filthiest of sounds better avoid this one.

3 / 5

FORGOTTEN TOMB: "Under Saturn Retrograde"

I’d consider myself as one of the many who enjoyed Forgotten Tomb’s first albums - Songs to Leave and Springtime Depression in particular - to a great extent, those albums being some of the cornerstone albums of the suicidal black/doom metal phenomenom, but since 2007’s Negative Megalomania and its upbeat rock elements, the downfall began. On their newest offering Under Saturn Retrograde, the band continues on this renewed path, meaning rather accessible compositions in a clear production with almost zero signs of the mournful melodies of the first albums. However, I wouldn’t go as far as calling this effort a total failure, because it’s very audible that Under Saturn Retrograde is a thoughtfully crafted album.

To depict the band’s current sound, one could think of modern Katatonia’s (The Great Cold Distance, Night Is the New Day) pulsating metal / rock rhythms and bright sound, combined with Shining’s lunacy. This all is most evidently witnessed on the first track "Reject Existence" and the two other rather chorus-based followers, "Shutter" and "Downlift", after which a surprisingly decent The Stooges cover "I Wanna Be Your Dog" appears. Next up is the goth-full "Joyless" that, albeit having some pretty nice and delicate melodies in the end, is a slight moodkiller with its HIM and Sentenced influences, especially in the clear vocal department. "Under Saturn Retrograde Part I" is the fastest and most black metal song on the album, followed by the opposite "Part II" which relents a little with acoustic guitars and sweet bass guitar lines. "You Can’t Kill Who’s Already Dead" runs a little too long for its 9-minute length, but "Spectres Over Venice" is there to compensate, being the album’s highlight with its great ending chord progressions.

It must be stated again that Forgotten Tomb is no longer the same band it was during early 2000s; Under Saturn Retrograde is a rather sophisticated dark metal / rock album from which a devoted DSBM lover won’t find much to enjoy. But in regard to what the band plays nowadays, they do it with success. It might not be what I’d personally listen to on a daily basis, but will certainly, and generally speaking, trigger the interest of a slightly younger and mainstream audience who are not interested in lo-fi suicidal black metal bands.

3 / 5

ARVET: "Aijna"

It’s been four years since Arvet put out its first tape demo Elävän Kuoleman Aamuna, followed by the EP Ihmiskärsimys a year later, both releases prominently dwelling in melancholy, not unlike a plethora of other Finnish black metal acts of late times that lean toward depressive black metal without the pitifulness usually attached to the sub-genre. These bands, instead, shine with occult ideologies and on Aijna, Arvet’s first full-length, the band moves further away from evident depression, introducing a lot of dissonant melody and overall filthiness to the music. The result is something utterly possessed, yet still so beautiful.

Looking at Aijna’s roster, a grand change is visible: Noxifer is no longer the only one responsible for the instruments, as he’s joined by a full line-up of members with strong Saturnian Mist relations. A four headed assembly doesn’t, however, result in precise and professional playing, not at all; Arvet sounds filthier than ever, not only because the instruments are executed with intuitive touch (instead of sitting in the studio recording the fifteenth take of each song), but also production-wise the band still feasts on dusty, low-fidelity soundscapes.

Musically, Aijna took me by surprise right in the beginning when ”Kuoleman Äiti” crawls maliciously with seemingly almost indecipherable dissonance, until a Si Monumentum esque lead melody escorts the track with distant, haunting screams somewhere in the background. Soon after the ’proper’ black metal hits, all the fury reminding me of Verge’s Hatemagic to a great extent - not only this song, but the whole album in general. A clearer example could be ”Rukous Mestarillisen Ajatuksen Oivaltamiseksi” that fluctuates between rapid blasts and slower beats, and closer to the end the melodies rise to heart-rending beauty. In fact, this pattern seems to apply to many of the songs: starting with more rapidity, the tracks progress into quite epic melodies in the end. During first listens, these compositions say little, but after a month of regular listening, I realize they’re all done pretty damn well, including the long outro of ”Liekehtivä Dharana” in which a simple, ritualistic discordance is being repeated for multiple minutes.

If the music alone feels hard to digest, the lyrics are even a level higher. While I was pretty much able to decipher the themes of e.g. mortification on Ihmiskärsimys, Aijna goes wider and deeper into occult subjects in a way that only an advanced explorer of esoteric beliefs can comprehend. The lyrics are spewed out with true feeling by both Zetekh and Noxifer, and the actual content is an important, if not even mandatory, part of Aijna. Personally there’s a lot of unlocked doors in the maze of Aijna for me, and it’ll still take quite a long while to work out everything. But as the thing with comprehensive albums always goes, it isn't required to understand everything and that is what brings a nice charm to a record.

With its intriguing song progressions, authentic and raw sound, intricate occult imagery and symbolic lyrics blazing with ardor, I dare to say that Aijna deserves its place among other modern Finnish classics-to-come, or cult legends, such as IC Rex’s Valonkantajan Alkemia even if I’m already quite certain that - all unnecessary elitism aside - only few can see Aijna’s appeal due to its ultimately challenging nature both musically and thematically.

4.5 / 5

MOONLIGHT: "Rex Diabolos"

It is not only the northern soil of Scandinavia that thrives on ice cold black metal, this has been proved by a plethora of recent groups hailing from southern abodes of America, such as Patria from Brazil. Moonlight is another addition to the list of blizzarding black metal acts from an unusual location, this time from Mexico, offering a full hour of piercing and evil black metal, handled by mere one man.

Rex Diabolos is, indeed, long. And especially too long for its uncompromising style that shows no signs of innovation, following the footsteps of Dark Funeral and Marduk quite closely. But now putting aside the usual nagging about unoriginality for a moment, Ishtar does deliver the shivering tremolo riffs with authenticity, the only complaint being the occasional shredding guitar solos that definitely don’t fit to the album’s overall atmosphere. The solo on the last song ”Sacrilegus Oratio (Part 2)” is, however, pretty damn epic, showing a surprising amount of technical ability that you wouldn’t have guessed beforehand from the otherwise simple black metal. Drums are, unfortunately, programmed but it doesn’t ruin the atmosphere as they’re mixed enough low, giving the riffs their deserved main role.

While the foundation of the traditional black metal is evidently fine here, Rex Diabolos clearly lacks proper highlights. The album does flow nicely, but the compositions do little to affect a listener who’s gone through a million similar albums in the past. Hence it becomes hard to recommend Rex Diabolos to any specific listener base, as newbies to black metal would better look into the innovators from early 90s, and experienced listeners won’t find much, if anything, to rejoice from the album. I’m tempted to go for a two star rating, but perhaps a half star more is vaguely deserved due to the record’s overall playability and non-harassing nature.

2.5 / 5

SPEARHEAD: "Theomachia"

Furious and militant black / death metal, yeah yeah, all too seen area. Spearhead is one of those rather recent acts that don’t much, or in this case at all, care for sweet and calmful melodic passages; instead, this is pure war. And while the result of an album-lenght of mere savage violence can often end up being a very tiresome listening experience, this band’s third full-length Theomachia hits the right spots and does not sound dull at all.

The key to the album’s success is how damn tightly they execute their instruments in relatively fast speeds, not unlike Impiety. If we want to drop more names, Morbid Angel and Angelcorpse are another names worth mentioning here, as those bands’ fans will most likely enjoy what they hear on Theomachia, an album full of ass kicking and chaotic riffage - with the exceptions of the brief interlude ”Praesagium” and the last track ”Aftermath” with its focus on discordant atmosphere. What comes to the uniqueness of the album’s compositional work, well, there’s not really any of that. But in a case like Theomachia, which deliberately feasts on primitive death / black metal ideas initiated twenty years ago already, it does not matter.

Due to its ultimately unsurprising nature, I can’t say Theomachia is a true masterpiece, but in its category a real treat anyhow. Production-wise, the album sounds sharp and crisp, a necessity for a violent effort like this. There’s no need to go much further into specific details of tracks; all that needs to be said at this point is that this war machine is a recommendable album for the fans of the groups mentioned in the paragraph above. I doubt they’d be disappointed.

3.5 / 5