Suffering so you don't have to!
What? Are you surprised that MER Industries is covering such a mainstream band? You’ll dare to call us not Metal anymore. As if we care. What we do care about is giving even the most commercial band a fair chance. I’m sure those of you with a love for anything Gothic will know Lacuna Coil needs no introduction and that despite my skepticism for Sleepless Empire, I’m willing to suspend my prejudices for a few hours while I analyze another album from a now ancient band.
Here we go again! It’s one of my reviewer’s favorite niches—German Black Metal—which, according to them, has become synonymous with quality. (Honestly, I think that applies more to German Post/Black, but I’m being a snob.) Anyway, Urfeind is a band that attempts to represent this harrowing and deranged Black Metal school of thought with pride. Dauþalaikaz is an album with that kind of attitude and art. It takes itself seriously, and the real question is if we, the plebs, can take it seriously too.
I promise I have no Central/Eastern European agenda this year—it’s just what makes sense to review as the quiet month of January moves along. Watch My Dying is a Hungarian band with a long career, and at first, I wasn’t sold on the idea of listening to some strange industrial experiment. But Egyenes Kerőlő caught my attention when I read in the promo that they had collaborated with Thy Catafalque. You know we love anything that project puts out. Still, I wasn’t expecting a bootleg of that band—I wanted something more!
I should’ve asked Ixione to review Putred‘s Megalit al Putrefacției, since my Romanian is next to non-existent. Either way, you don’t listen to rancid, heinous Death Metal for the lyrics, right? What? You do? Please, go get some help if that’s the case. But I digress. We have our first “new” Old School Death Metal album of the year, and though my expectations are realistic, I’m more than ready to get destroyed by some nasty riffs from the land of horror.
With a band name like Cerebral Hemorrhage, you’d be inclined to think that Exempting Reality isn’t about being a teen trying to find your place in the world while dealing with your angst. You’d be right because this act is all about bringing old-school Death Metal to its real roots. I’m not talking about the retro-Death Metal we’ve had over the last 10 years. I mean Death Metal from the era before computers—when the USA and Sweden were battling to see who could produce the most poorly recorded piece of violent music. Enough with the history lesson!
Looking for trivia for this review, I came to the obvious fact that The Halo Effect only has two albums (counting March of the Unheard), which honestly is shocking given how seasoned some of its members are. I always wondered if The Halo Effect would just follow whatever Dark Tranquillity or In Flames were doing and if it’d even be capable of competing with the OGs of Swedish MeloDeath. But not everything is about competition; sometimes you create a band to hang out with your friends, right? Sometimes, you just want to dive into music with the same excitement you once had for life, back when you were too young to own your mistakes.
Pegah & Metalcatto
Hi there, people! We’re back to our usual Sunday schedule. Your submissions have been piling up, and it was about time I got to them. However, I’m not alone this time; Pegah is also joining us to take a look at some stuff you, our followers and readers, sent. Let’s go!
Ixone
For every Black Metal listener with a preference for ferocity over coldness, this album might just be right up your alley. Judging by the album cover alone, it might not seem that way, but the second the second track (the first one is, of course, an intro) kicks in, you’re in for a wild ride. Having been in production for over four years before finally seeing the light of day, it’s easy to (rightfully) assume that this is a carefully written and well-executed record.
Two thoughts crossed my mind when I got the promo for Am I in Trouble? – Spectrum. First: “Oh wow! There’s so much color here that there’s no way this is just a Black Metal album”. Second: “That’s one of the weirdest band names I’ve ever heard”. For an extreme Metal band, the name feels a bit… problematic (ooof, I know I’m getting punched for that one). And I’ve received promos with band names I can’t even post here! But I was intrigued, because I love albums that subvert expectations, and at least in its presentation, Spectrum was doing just that. But was it more than just a striking look? Let’s find out.
I’ll spare you all the now-old drama surrounding the creation of Patriarkh (such a feminist name!). My job is to focus on the music; it’s yours to eat up the gossip. Anyway, in ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ, Patriarkh continues its quest to craft the most blasphemous mockery of Slavic Orthodox traditions. Full disclosure: yours truly might speak many tongues but has no clue what’s being said in this album from start to finish. Still, I assume it’s something evil and unholy, but, you’re not reading this for the lyrics. Let’s go!
Metal Eclipse Reviews 