ENCIRCLE: “LOST CHRONICLES”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jan 282015
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by a one-man Floridian band named Encircle.)

Anthony DiGiacomo has been my friend now for a couple years in some capacity or another even though we didn’t really get close until last year. I have to admit, I’ve never seriously listened to his music under the moniker Encircle until recently. With that said, I am giving full disclosure here: I am reviewing the music of a friend. Some bias may be unavoidable.

However, that doesn’t mean that the music under the Encircle name isn’t great. It is. It’s also exactly what I like, which is very hybridized music. Anthony mixes the best aspects of more modern tech death, technical metal core, and a bit of some big dumb death core skull-smashing to taste. Lost Chronicles is a pretty beastly record if what I just described sounds appealing to you. Continue reading »

SHATTERED SKIES: “THE WORLD WE USED TO KNOW”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jan 272015
 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new album by the UK/Ireland band Shattered Skies.)

I was rabidly a fan of Shattered Skies’ debut EP Reanimation back in 2011. Their odd djent-meets-heavier-power-metal like Symphony X and Evergrey style made them really stick out to me. I’ve waited FOREVER for these guys to put out a full-length, and I was honestly wondering if they ever would. The World We Used To Know completely blew away my expectations for a debut from them, and it’s a definite surprise first highlight of 2015.

The grooves on this record are like getting hit by concrete-filled boxing gloves, but it’s all punctuated by some absolutely angelic, infectious, and overwhelming vocal melodies, along with stellar keyboard and string incorporations. Continue reading »

DUSKMOURN: “LEGENDS”

 Album Reviews  8 Responses »
Jan 022015
 

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews the debut album released in December by a two-man band from NJ/PA named Duskmourn.)

Do you like the idea of Omnium Gatherum with folk elements instead of more modern futuristic textures and sounds?  Duskmourn is for you.  Combining sounds of Omnium, Dark Tranquility, Hypocrisy, and something of a Be’lakor vibe, Duskmourn’s debut Legends is a satisfying melodic death metal morsel.

Duskmourn is an American duo.  There is Bill Sharpe in charge of drums, guitars, and keyboards, and Walter Deyo in charge of vocals, bass, and also guitars.  The music is feral and forlorn and has that marching-into-battle feel.  I hate saying that, because when you say that most people seem to bounce right to Amon Amarth.  There is a bit of that vibe on here, too, but it’s by no means an accurate or fair comparison. Continue reading »

STEALING AXION: “AEONS”

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Dec 312014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli returns to our pages with this review of the new second album by Stealing Axion of Tacoma, Washington.)

Holiday break from academic slavery has arrived, so I suppose it’s time to get some writing done.

I praised Stealing Axion’s debut Moments to the high fucking heavens — it’s still an album I listen to often to this day.  The perfect intersection between death metal brutality, progressive ambition, and syncopated grooves that defined the best aspects of the djent movement has had me hooked since I first heard it.  I’ve been eagerly anticipating Aeons, and I’ve been watering at the mouth for a long time, considering that I knew from being in contact with the band that a lot of this music was already written at the time Moments came out.  I even got to hear a clip or two (ones that didn’t make it onto the album) and couldn’t have been more excited.  Aeons is a very different record from Moments in its approach.  The music this time is slower, and much of it drags and pulls you under with the weight of the grooves.  A lot of this album borders on being doomy, but with syncopation as a heavy component of the grooving.

The central elements are still there, though, and what the album sacrifices in driving energy compared to its predecessor it makes up for by bringing forth spine-crushing slow-mo beatdowns and lush atmosphere that drenches you like glowing plasma rain. Continue reading »

TYRANNY ENTHRONED: “OUR GREAT UNDOING”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 232014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new second album by Tyranny Enthroned from St. Louis, Missouri.)

Tyranny Enthroned are one of America’s best death metal newcomers.

That could be viewed as a bit of a hyperbolic statement, but to me it’s absolutely true. I was already in love with the band’s debut Born of Hate, which I have reviewed here, but their sophomore opus Our Great Undoing cements them as a death-dealing titan worth watching.

It would be odd for me to quantify how this album functions as a sophomore release, especially considering just how important the second album is in any band’s career to either showing their stuff or getting dismissed. A lot has changed, and at the same time nothing has. The Polish influences of Behemoth and Hate are still a core of their sound, and they do maintain that layer of American militarism, but their riffing and songwriting is much less derivative and is now molding and establishing more of a definitive identity for them. Continue reading »

HONE YOUR SENSE: “ABSOLUTE SENSES”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 152014
 

 

(TheMadIsrael reviews the debut album of Hone Your Sense from Japan.)

The Japanese produce some fucking titanic metalcore and deathcore.  It’s one of their exports that has stuck out to me consistently.  Hone Your Sense is a metalcore/deathcore hybrid that doesn’t fuck around in the slightest.  They have riffs, attitude, intensity, and they beat you to death without the slightest inch of mercy but with an overwhelming amount of class.

Absolute Senses is the debut full-length of these dudes, following a rather killer EP, Tri-Jolt.  They take their influences from the more technical, bruisier, and ballsier side of their metalcore sound in particular.  You’ll think Unearth, Bleeding Through, and Himsa while listening, and the result is a debut free from fluff, bullshit, or meandering.  Their sound is that same fusion of hardcore brawn, thrash speed and technicality, and death metal bludgeoning the previously mentioned bands were known for to one degree or another.  I’m pretty in love with this record, have been since I discovered it a few months ago. Continue reading »

PREY FOR NOTHING: “THE REASONING”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Nov 212014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new third album by the Israeli band Prey For Nothing.)

First, you should go check out my previous article on this band where I gave an overview of their music, as well as band-authorized downloads of their first two albums. I’d like to not waste time on the typical introductory shit today.

Melodic death metal nowadays really does need to be two things if it wants to be relevant and interesting. It needs depth, and it needs songwriting. While we’ve definitely seen this in the doom-driven aspect of the scene, every other approach to it has been more often than not done rather halfheartedly, much to my disappointment. Prey For Nothing definitely have the depth and the songwriting, taking their brand of Schuldiner-drenched melodic death-dealing proficiency to a new level of intricacy. Continue reading »

CANNIBAL CORPSE: “A SKELETAL DOMAIN”

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Sep 042014
 

 

(TheMadIsraeli reviews the new 13th album by Cannibal Corpse.)

Cannibal Corpse at this point really are in their musical stride. Even beyond the massive leap in musical proficiency the band made when Corpsegrinder replaced Barnes on vocals, the way they’ve been firing on all cylinders since The Wretched Spawn is really unmatched in the careers of many other long-standing extreme metal bands. In other cases, the quality might still be great, but it hasn’t consistently improved as it has in the discography of Cannibal Corpse. A Skeletal Domain follows Torture, which is a pretty difficult album to surmount, considering it was easily the most savage album they’d ever recorded. A Skeletal Domain is indeed better than its predecessor, though whether you agree may depend on whether you like the approach they’ve taken on this new one.

A Skeletal Domain is a very tactical technical death metal record. Everything about it feels calculated, refined, ground into a fine powder that shimmers like diamonds and will cut flesh at the touch. It’s a very riffy album in the spirit of the Jack Owen/Chris Barnes era, but with Pat O’Brien’s sense of guitar acrobatics. The mix is much cleaner, which really accents this more refined approach as well. I previously would’ve called Evisceration Plague their song-writing record. THIS is their song-writing record in definitive terms. Everything stays true to the Corpsegrinder-era Corpse spirit, but it is at the same time everything Torture was not. I praised Torture for its rather primal assault on the senses, and while A Skeletal Domain is definitely the equivalent of being beaten to death and mauled by a mandrill, it’s much more technical, the song structures much more progressive and more unconventional. Continue reading »

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