ATRA: "Up-turning the Curse"

It hasn't been that many months since Atra's previous release, namely the second full-length In Reverence of Decay, came out and here this seemingly prolific dark entity already offers brand new material in the length of an EP. Consisting of six songs, of which two are droning bookends, Up-turning the Curse does not surprise a listener who is familiar with his back catalogue, and so the question is more about are you up for another trip through harrowing graveyards in pitch black, lurking darkness, or have you had your share of the style by now.

The first piece of the EP, ”Invocation of the Departed”, revels in setting the deadly ambiance, followed by ”Wander the Absence” which gets into the low fidelity black metal where the band does not take many compromises. It's ghastly as hell, there's no question of that even if the actual compositions aren't that special. This particular song does contain an old schoolis power chord riff at one point which is a nice change. The eponymoys ”Up-turning the Curse” belongs to the highlights of the EP, it is a ritualistic piece of pummeling tom drums, desperate and haunting screams and, perhaps most importantly, sinister synth mats. ”Harbringer (II)” crawls forth slowly with discordant plucking until it turns into a more straightforward affair of underground black metal. Its ending is probably the most surprising thing in the whole EP as it's one first times when Atra gets into a melancholic, melodic climax close to Drowning the Light's recent output. ”Graveless Apparitions” involves some wild guitar work but doesn't stand out as much as some other pieces here, and ”Possession” closes the experience in a nicely textured ambient atmosphere.

Comparing Up-turning the Curse with Atra's other output is a challenge since the music hasn't branched much off from the style they've been doing since the first demo. What is a definite plus, however, is the shorter running time: now Atra sounds more focused than ever and perhaps it's also a bit easier to digest in smaller dosages than as a full 40-minute monster. A mandatory purchase for the followers of the current Australian scene (Ill Omen, Harvest and a dozen more) and for all others also a nice example of underground black metal where the atmosphere is spot on.

3.5 / 5

MORBUS CHRON: "Sleepers in the Rift"

When death metal and Sweden appear in the same sentence, I'm almost bound to the mindset that it can't be anything else than something related to Entombed or the likes, but Morbus Chron destroys that paradigm right in the beginning with its debut album's cover art that flashes with a thousand of colours. Musically, we might be a tad closer to the phenomenom of Swedish underground revival than the deviant artwork suggest, but Morbus Chron has its own personal traits as well.

These differing features aren't anything crucially exceptional however, because Sleepers in the Rift is still, at its very core, old school Swedish death metal. Sound-wise, the band does incorporate a more spacey guitar sound as well as a more breathing production overall: there's none of that asphyxiating, muddy atmosphere present on the album that dominates almost every other product in the field. Instead of a stifling graveyard production, Morbus Chron concentrates on lively riffs that range from simple, traditional firings to rather melodic affairs. There's nothing wistful about the melodies though, they're all menacing tunes, aptly placed into the raucous music. The vocalist deserves a mention too as he delivers quite a wide spectrum of fittingly unhinged snarls.

All in all, what one should expect of Sleepers in the Rift is a concise package of Swedish death metal crafted of familiar elements but spiced with a couple of atypical ideas. I might prefer the more charasteristic Swedish sound that reeks of rotten corpses, but I also do think that Morbus Chron has done quite a good job here at creating captivating death metal not full of clichés. Worth of checking out, most certainly.

3 / 5  

NILE: "Worship the Animal"

To this date, Nile has puked six full-lengths of their own brand of Egypt themed, cryptic yet epic death metal, and throughout their career they have garnered more and more publicity and why the hell not – even I really like the band, and it is actually one of the only popular death metal bands that I follow. Worship the Animal takes us back to the band's first steps even before the major debut Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka, and shows how different but still same the band sounded almost twenty years ago.

Starting with ”La Chant du Cygre”, things seem really different compared to the Nile of today. There's more thrash metal in the riffs as well as vocals, and the vaguely uncommon time signatures (a joke if you compare to the complexities of nowadays) actually remind me of Meshuggah's early steps in the first half of the 90s. On the follow-up ”Worship the Animal” the band shifts into more familiar Nile sound with an eerie synth choir. However, it's the third track ”Nepenthe” that takes the spot of providing most Nile esque material with its meandering riffs and rhythms, a definite highlight of the compilation EP along with the title track. ”Surrounded by Fright” and ”Mecca” are a tad less impressive lengthy pieces but nonetheless enjoyable documents capturing the evolution of the band.

Considering that this is an old, before unreleased bunch of demo level songs, it comes as a surprise how good the audio sounds, and it's actually a lot more punchy, spacey and detailed than the debut album. The actual compositions might not be essential, but a diehard fan of the group should most certainly invest into Worship the Animal, and not only to complete his/her Nile collection, but also because the content is a lot better than one could have expected from such a rudimentary recording.

3 / 5

GRAVEBORNE: "Pure Negativity"

Finnish black metal has a tendency to revel in very underground spirit when it comes to sound quality and execution of instruments, but recent years have provided a plentiful of bands that are one level higher on technicality, tightness and overall modernity. Graveborne's debut album Pure Negativity is among those albums that, instead of an utterly raw sound and primitive attitude, prefers to keep things rather clean.

Not that there's a lack of aggressiveness: it doesn't take more than the first track ”Metamorphosis” to kick in when you realize that you're in for a swift ride of Dark Funeral and Marduk esque blast beats and tremolo fires. Soon after I'm also sensing a presence of Keep of Kalessin, just a less melodic version of it. The second track ”Nocturnal” belongs to my favourities of the bunch as it includes some subtle melancholy in one of the main riffs, though I'm not yet sure what to think of the track's outro section, that chugging rhythm kind of takes me back to bands like Chimaira...

As easily happens with albums of this style, at least in my opinion, stagnation starts to plague the album the closer you get towards its end. Starting from around the middle of the album, I'm no longer able to differentiate the tracks properly, no matter that I've given them a fair amount of spins before writing a word. Good riffs appear every now and then of course – for example on ”Aokigahara” there's that fantastic, epic one (how much can a band actually sound like Alghazanth?) and I can't deny the power of acoustic guitars on ”Dark Matter” - but there's nothing majorly impressive that would hold my grip firmly on the album.

For a debut effort, Pure Negativity is incredibly played as well as produced, as the whole package reeks of professionalism. Definitely a well done album that just, to my ears, sounds a bit too familiar and safe to evoke any big feelings. Put it in the background and I'll never find the album harassing, but for repeated, focused listenings? Nah, I'd slowly grow tired of it. Bonus points, however, for the lyrics that are certainly worth a read, and cover art that deserves more than just a fast glance.

3 / 5

TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE: "Prophecies of Malevolence"

Ambient and black metal often walk hand in hand, and how could that not be true when we consider something like Temple Nightside's debut EP Prophecies of Malovelence that is so lush in atmosphere that the actual metal instrumentation gets very blurred in the highly ambient soundscape. No, this isn't the kind of beautiful black metal ambient á la ColdWorld or Vinterriket, this is something from the depths of the underworld where all sinister resides.

Lo-fi production, richly atmospheric sound and utter evilness isn't, however, a new thing to many of these late Australian black metal groups that the country has spawned lately, such as Atra and Ill Omen – the latter project being responsible of Temple Nightside as well. The only major difference between those acts and Temple Nightside is that this is a more deathened effort: although I'd say this is still prominently black metal with all the tremolo work and discordant pluckings, the vocal pitch is way lower, resulting in some sort of whispered grunts, plus there's plenty of death metal esque, palm muted riffing within the mix.

But I do not believe that any review of Prophecies of Malevolence should focus solely on the metal because around half of the EP's length comprises the harrowing, droning ambient. It's harsh and distant as the other tracks, and very evocative and malignant. It's rare to come by this well done 'interludes' but these Australians are definitely on the right track when it comes good blackened ambient.

27 minutes pass fast, but in a way it is only good that the EP isn't prolonged. This is just about the right length for a style in which the musical style doesn't much vary and where the echoing, blurry sound might dull the listener after a half an hour. Adorned with a great looking cover art, I find Prophecies of Malevolence a worthy experience. It is not quite extraordinary, as there's not much personality in the actual riffs, but any fan of deep atmosphere in their evil black metal better check this one out.

3.5 / 5

NUNFUCKRITUAL: "In Bondage to the Serpent"

One could have expected something more bestial and swift from a band that is named NunFuckRitual, but that is not exactly the case here. Despite the name that would fit perectly into Hells Headbangers' roster, this kind-of supergroup – involving members from various black metal groups, including a connection to Mayhem – delivers slow, menacing pain that rather needles the listener with ringing discordance than ravages with blast beats.

Indeed, In Bondage to the Serpent is slow, slow to the point of deserving the subtag doom metal. But that mostly fits to the album's general pace, as riff-wise the music is more prominently black metal: repetitive high-pitched tremolo work and sinister, highly distorted plucking. On top of the simple beats and evil melodies reside various whispered and gnarled vocals. The songs always tend to end up around seven and eight minutes, and as the songs aren't that versatile nor progressive, it's ultimately the overall atmosphere that matters.

And in that NunFuckRitual succeeds: In Bondage to the Serpent is auhentically dark and evil. But what comes to individual compositions, I don't think there's that much to remember after the album has ended. A successful aura of menace is what holds the album nicely together and keeps my interest throughout, but I don't see myself returning to it very frequently. There's a couple of noteworthy highlight moments, however, such as the epic, organ like synths on ”Christotokos”.

Looking for a trip in extremely malevolent soundscapes? Then do check out In Bondage to the Serpent which surely serves that purpose. All is done pretty well here but then again, it is 2011 and there's been similar efforts quite a lot every year, and although NunFuckRitual is somewhat above the line of mediocrity, something more is needed to truly rise my attention. And I don't think that applies merely to yours truly.

3 / 5