LP Review: "God Has No Name" by Hex

God Has No Name

This record has been kicking around in my head for about a month now. I listened to it and thought, wow this is good.

Unfortunately it's getting harder for me to actually write reviews rather than my standard columns. So, it was finished and really, there was nothing I could say about this album apart from wow, it rocked.

There's just so much here. This is a big ol'fat record that's just crushing doom metal that wanders into the death metal pool from time to time.

God Has No Name is kind of like eating surf and turf...if you were eating the steak and lobster at the same time.

The vocals are always slow(ish). The rhythm section is always moving along at a fast clip. The drag created by the guitars and the vocals make for a satisfying feel. Then of course, when Hex just flat out goes straight doom, it's like trying to suck down a White Castle Milk Shake before you've let it melt a little bit.

God Has No Name isn't a technical metal masterpiece. There's no pretentious prog involved. It's not even as extreme as High On Fire.

It's just a sold album start to finish. By solid, I mean rock solid like, if it fell on your toes, you wouldn't be going skating for awhile, because in terms of quality, this is an excellent record.

RELEASE 7/5/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "Moonless Night Sacraments" by Deathwomb

Moonless Night Sacraments

When I was in high school, all those many years ago, a teacher told our class that the hardest thing about starting a band is naming it, because all the good ones are taken.

He's kind of right and now there are several names used by multiple names, but here's a new one on me: Deathwomb.

Honestly, I cannot figure out what a death womb even is, but ok. It's metal and dark. So that makes sense.

On their debut album these Spanish Black metallers are able to conjure up the legends of the genre without ever sounded like a xeroxed copy.

Is it right to call a throwback band authentic? Well, they're at least as authentic as American Chinese food I guess. The significant point here is that this band, starting out, has hit the ball out of the park or pulled down a golaso (as they're probably bigger fans of soccer rather than baseball).

Moonless Night Sacraments is appropriately evil, catchy, and it sounds like it was recorded inside of a metal lunchbox. That is to say, it's basically a perfect record.

RELEASE 4/19/19 BANDCAMP

Bookin It With Ernia

Let's get back to our friends from Spain, Ernia.

Did you take a minute to get over to BANDCAMP to pick up their latest record?

You totally should, but for right now, let's talk about the printed word.

Video: "Nostrum Mare (Ed deixo un pont de mar blava)" by Helevorn

When doom metal is what you need, the fellas in Helevorn have you covered. They have just released their latest record, Aamamata on vinyl, CD, and digital. You can see about picking that up HERE.

Vocalist Josep Brunet says this about the song...

This is a song about what our Mediterranean Sea was and what is nowadays… I mean, during the past times it was a sea to share, to grow, of course, there was a lot of wars, but it was our true nation, of all of us, so in this song appears eight different languages of our big cultural area (Greek, Maltese, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Italian, French, and Hebrew), and we had our friends and fans of the band do the vocals on it.

The lyrics for it are from a poem by Catalan writer, Miquel Martí I Pol, translated into these eight languages. The melodic vocals done by Julia Colom too are really awesome; we had goosebumps on our skin when she was recording her vocal parts. Very epic, gothic and very deep.

In the mean time, check out their latest video below:

LP Review: "Theater of Despair" by Violblast

Theater of Despair

If January is any indication, 2019 is going to be chock full of some truly amazing thrash.

This isn't one of those subgenres I dig into too much, because well, it's all been done before.

Enter Violblast. (Let's be honest, that's a difficult name to pronounce.)

These Spaniards have returned to restore my faith in the eldest of the sub-genres. They've recently signed to Hostile Media and we're now on the cusp of their first album for their new imprint.

Theater of Despair has a classic looking album cover with a slight modern update. It features classic imagery and coloration.

We've seen the undead on covers before and the woodcut style of of artwork. Even their logo is heavily influenced by their forebears. But instead of just black and grey, there's the infusion of red. The red makes the dead king's visage more horrible, more conspicuous, and more ghastly.

It's the perfect allegory for the music contained herein. Their guitars sound almost exactly like Slayer's Seasons In The Abyss. It's the thrash metal sound of perfection, but the riffing has death metal complexity and dexterity.

Violblast has hit us with a classic album but they've attached their vessel to modernity and it's bliss.

RELEASE 1/11/19 PREORDER FACEBOOK

Video: "The End of Ice" by Aeolian

Did you hear that right now humanity is headed towards irreparable damage to our only habitat because a segment of the society chooses to believe the "findings" of the fossil fuel industry, aka, the industry which non-partisan, non-political science has shown to be one of the major contributors to Climate Change, have come forward with?

Well, if you're a bit angry about that, here's a good chance to listen to a melodic death metal band singing about the planet warming up and how we don't care that we're killing our children.

Enjoy!

Check out Aeolian on FACEBOOK. 

LP Review: "Where All Hope Fades" by Ataraxy

Where All Hope Fades

As of this writing, it's nearly the middle of February and since the world has changed, all of our winters months have become largely the same in St. Louis.

They are cold, warm, hot, cold, warm, cold, cold, and grey.

It's usually around this time, after the Suberb Owls have flown, before baseball heats up, and when hockey is in its slumber that St. Louis finds itself here.

Where is here?

It's a place where there is very little. The people are staying inside of their homes. The bands are staying away.

The salt remains all over the ground and the trees still sport their barren look. It's the ugly underside of winter here. If we still got snow, it would be glorious. My daughter and I have only had a single snowball fight this year...

EP Review: "Cara Data Vermibus" by Come Back From The Dead

Caro Data Vermibus

Mmm...that Reese's Peanut Butter Cup was so good.

Shoot, your friend here is old enough to remember when there was no such thing as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups...or perhaps the onslaught of commercials just makes me think that.

But, there's no question that those you got chocolate in my peanut butter and you got peanut butter in my chocolate commercials are imprinted on my mind.

I can also remember a world where we ate our Easter bunnies while dipping them in peanut butter, because they hadn't extended the Reese's plan into bunnies yet.

Their idea was that there are two great tastes and why should you choose what you had? (It was the 80's after all and it was more more more.) This lesson that I'm trying to teach my daughter...well, it's a source of great hypocrisy for me....

LP Review: "Earthquake" by Canker

Earthquake

There are a great many things that have left a mark on my very soul.

Many times it's something silly that really shouldn't be remembered, but cannot be forgotten.

Today's case in point is the movie Amadeus.

Frankly, it's unclear how much of that movie is remotely accurate and made up of so much spun yarn, but that's not the point.

Though it did get me through nearly a week of Music class in 8th Grade, i.e. the last time I saw this movie.

For some reason, the harpsichord features prominently in this particular film. That's not an instrument one hears very often. My introduction was in The Addams Family which gave it a particularly creepy vibe.

LP Review: "Spectral Ascent" by Kabbalah

Spectral Ascent

Reading Jimmy Page's interviews over the years has been a darkly illuminating experience.

There was one particular discussion where he was talking about being in opium dens on the other side of the world with Robert Plant, on a songwriting expedition.

In my mind, there was a stunning picture of Page and Plant sitting on a stage, each wearing a fez, and smoking these large hookah pipes as they sang or at least tried to find the song.

We've all got at least one friend who'd read that little passage and think, "man, it would be awesome to hang out with them and smoke opium and hashish."

In some of the music they created, there's an element of this scene. Influences here and there could speak to this time, but Led Zeppelin never created this soundtrack. Page and Plant, touched on it a bit....

LP Review: "Beyond The Thresholds" by Marthyrium

Beyond The Thresholds

There are few things in this world greater than a milkshake.

The trifle is up there. If you've never had that cake, be sure to get your hands on one. They are so packed together and full of all sorts of flavors. Why, it would be impossible to try one and not be hooked.

But what might be a bit more relevant to us today would be the (not so) humble concrete. These are available at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, at either location on Route 66 or South Grand in St. Louis, MO.

If you've been through St. Louis and didn't get one, you missed out. What these things are is essentially ice cream, but custard instead of proper ice cream. They are the thickest thing you've ever experienced in terms of desserts. Sometimes they'll turn them upside down before handing them to you and they don't move, hence the name concrete.

EP Review: "Voces de la Tierra Dormida" by HEID

Voces de la Tierra Dormida

One thing that I don't really do is Folk Metal.

There have been a great many times that people have told me about this Finnish band or that Norwegian band and you're not metal if you can't get into folk metal.

Ok, that last bit may not be totally true.

For all of my consternation regarding checking boxes, it would seem that folk metal would be right up my alley, but hearing the other instruments tend to, well put me off.

Even black metal's keyboards tend to get me a bit edgy, but King Diamond using harpsichords...totally find.

This is a very strange way to be, but back to the point, Folk Metal has never really felt like metal to me, but some oddly updated folk music from back in the day...waaaay back in the day.