Diamond Plate might be one of the more recent additions to the revivalist thrash metal scene but they do not sound like amateurs. They are also younger than some of their counterparts; lead singer Matt Ares is only nineteen years old. With their second album, Pulse (Earache Records), they separate themselves from other thrash revivalists such as Violator and Skeletonwitch while still remaining true to the genre’s roots. Diamond Plate is able to turn back the clocks, but keep it fresh.Continue reading
Category Archives: Album Reviews
Generation Of Vipers – Howl And Filfth
Another album mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City Studios, Generation Of Vipers’ album, Howl And Filth (Golden Antenna), is a brutalizing amalgamation of sludge and doom that wields the trademark God City sound.Continue reading
Empty Flowers – Five
Hailing from Connecticut, Empty Flowers are a four-piece playing emotive post rock with a punk attitude; part Fugazi, part Iggy & The Stooges. Made up or of former members of metalcore group Cable, the band is now releasing their second album.Continue reading
Infanticide – Misconception Of Hope
Three years on from rampantly evil second album From Our Cold Dead Hands, Sweden’s Infanticide continue their grindcore odyssey with the even more uncompromising third album, Misconception Of Hope (Willowtip).Continue reading
Last Chance To Reason – Level 3
Last Chance To Reason is essentially a dead band and Level 3 (Prosthetic Records) represents their final fling. For those new to the band this is the third interactive album that matches to a video game (which I haven’t played) and there’s plenty of game noises thrown in here and there to make sure you don’t forget. It’s progressive technical metal full of bass grooves and chugging, arpeggios and riffs from guitar, driving drums and rather quiet and highly-processed clean vocals sharing with a bit of harsh. There’s a large measure if synth building depth that contrasts with sparse moments and even some well-placed silence.Continue reading
Svartsyn – Black Testament
In the world of black metal, it is often difficult to make a significant splash. There is only so much you can do with the genre and after a while, it isn’t hard to bore listeners when the basics usually remain highly intact and rarely changing since the late 70s. However, Svartsyn, a Swedish black metal band, doesn’t seem to care about any of this – showing their commitment by powering forward through seven albums. Now, I haven’t personally heard earlier releases but from the sound of it, Svartsyn really doesn’t fall into the monotony many black metal bands tend to fall into.Continue reading
ReVamp – Wild Card
It may have taken time and gone through obstacles to come to realisation, but Wild Card (Nuclear Blast) the second album from Dutch symphonic metallers ReVamp seems to have turned the wait into an aggression and snarl which elevates the beauty and passion of the release to another level. The album is a towering piece of skilled imagination and breath-taking symphonic grandeur, one which explores familiarity as well as originality in creating a new potent wind of invention and glory.Continue reading
Ramming Speed – Doomed To Destroy/Destined To Die
Ramming Speed are a relatively new-jack “neo”-thrash outfit from Massachusetts, but unlike their peers in Havok, Fueled By Fire, and Bonded By Blood, they prove that they’re doing more than reliving the (G)olden days of Exodus and pre-Black Album Metallica; they’ve got the nuance and the unadulterated energy to pull off more than the occasional stint in a dive bar or DIY venue in the middle of nowhere, Kansas. Area code need not be included because the pigs would eagerly eat it up.Continue reading
Ecnephias – Necrogod
Italian gothic metallers Ecnephias have been plagued by line-up and label changes since their inception in 1996, alongside not quite knowing their place in the world, and genre hopping more times than most people have had hot meals. However, with a now solid line up and after successfully signing to cult label Code666 it looks like it’s fourth time lucky for the five piece with the release of Necrogod.Continue reading
The Safety Fire – Mouth Of Swords
A minute into the opening, title track of Mouth Of Swords (InsideOut), the new album from The Safety Fire, and you’re hit by full and complex layers of progressive metal and rock that reaches back to the ’70s and forward to the future as it takes inspiration from a broad range of themes and styles. Whether it’s chugging riffs or twidly high-pitched dissonant shredding, smooth flowing grooves or erratic rhythms and arpeggios, higher-range vocals or angry shouting, the songs are a conglomeration of many and varied parts.Continue reading