“Title / Menu Music” opens up this two-track game soundtrack, building a Halloween-ish vibe with chiptune theremin over breakbeats, a style kept up with some variance in the other track, “Gameplay Music”. Effective at setting the playful mood and evoking a sense of setting, the tracks are lively and bustling, though it does seem like the gameplay track would end up being rather tiresome for more than a quick play session.
Following their 2012 self-titled demo, the Arizona-based Horse Head issued this four-track EP, with punk-tinged metal not quite drifting into sludge. Song names like “Red-Eyed Angel” and “Whiskey And Blood” give things a blue-collar vibe, and the raspy screaming fits well enough with the rough-edged guitar tones. While the drummer doesn’t get much spot-lighting, he puts in the most consistent work of the EP, standing out even more due to the break-downs being the biggest point of differentiation between the songs. Not a bad start for the band, but fairly lacking in material to bring people back for their next effort.
On their second album, the Norwegian group of Nettlecarrier deliver seven tracks of rugged black metal, with murky mixing swamping the battering percussion and keening guitar while the gurgling hisses spike into howls for the vocals. Not much new is done with the style, but the group does a good job of building atmosphere and sound density before throwing in sharp turns or drops, and the rhythms retain a compelling force throughout the album. Unfortunately, the mood, tempo, and song structuring are all fairly monotonous, with only minor touches of variation between them. A few keyboard inserts would have gone a long way, while also being a neat little homage to early Norwegian black metal, but as it is, the album starts feeling stale enough to undermine its harshness about halfway through its run.
Opening with a powerful chord slam, this debut mini-album from the two-man Greek group of Agos packs three full-bodied tracks (plus a bonus pair on the CD version) of black death metal. Furious drumming, rasping yells, and tremolo guitar bash out fast-moving rhythms and accentuations, but the band tends to get stuck on one beat for too long, with the trigger-drumming really sticking out at times, and the songs, which each run 5 to ~7 minutes, end up feeling a bit bloated and lacking in direction despite the sharpness of the playing. Those flaws aside, it’s a strong start for the group, showing ambition and technical skill, so as long as the song-writing can be tightened up and some more variety put into the longer songs, their first LP should be a good one.
Here’s the alternate cover art.
Running just under half an hour, the nine songs of this album deliver a dense blast of brutal tech death, with the Algerian/Argentinian band hammering out drum rhythms while deep growls of vocals and bass are complemented by the snarling guitar. Track titles like “Dismembered Alive With Extreme Violence“ and “Radical Excruciation Concept” lend direction to the near-incoherent lyrical delivery, while the restraint of the abrupt breakdowns contrasts with the unhinged blitzes to provide a more believable sense of menace for their short runs. Though the song-writing suffers somewhat from the detached and choppy transitions, it still gets the intended mood across, and doesn’t detract too much from the atmospheric flow.
Filtering synthwave arrangements, complete with hard bass drones and glittery arpeggiations, through chiptune instrumentation, this debut EP from Three Chain Links manages its energy with clear wit. Establishing solid beats and melodies before rising into intensifications, hovering there long enough to savor, then dropping back down, the songs do nothing to hide the relish with which the extra layers of ornamentation are added, and that distinct enjoyment of the process gives the tunes an infectious virility. Though only two of the six songs run longer than three minutes, it’s still a strong debut, getting across a clear sense of character while demonstrating the musician’s knack for hooky melodies and beats.
In the only track of this single, Corroded Master meshes industrial beats and hissing vocals with glimmering synth loops and bass drones. Though it’s an odd mix, it works well enough, and the repetitive nature of the lyrics gets obscured enough by the instrumentation to make it through to the end without becoming too obnoxious.
On their third album, the Ukrainian duo of Celophys continue to experiment with the pre-human settings of their doom/sludge metal, with thickly-reverbed guitar, dirge-paced drums, and growling baritone vocals as the only instrumentation besides a handful of vocal samples. Following big, chunky riffs through slow melody cycles, with occasional jags of sharp feedback, and sometimes giving the blues roots some extra clarity (as in the second song, “Spaceburger”), the tracks don’t show much variation in the music, but that kind of fits with the elephantine shaping of the songs, and the riffs are generally strong enough to carry things through the sluggishness anyway.
Sedate garage rock with a mod streak, the A-side of this single indulges in throw-back style to the point of near-constantly jangling a tambourine in the background, but the main bass riff is sturdy enough, and the spidery guitar licks clever enough, for it to hold together well enough through its ~3:30 run, particularly with the energizing of the drums for the outro. The B-side takes more of a bubblegum pop turn, though the garage-ish atmosphere keeps it from drifting off into saccharine overload. Decent overall, but nothing too special.
On the first release from the one-man band of Kafka Rex, four tracks of stoner doom metal are served up, with fat-bodied bass, pedaled guitar, throaty vocals, and wobbly synth embellishment coming together with a smear of psychedelia to all gel in a very satisfying way. Between the track title, “The Electric Witch”, “Satan’s Skin”, and “High Priestess of Eventual Fuck”, the names of the songs communicate a good humor about the nature of the material, meshing well with the generally laid-back grooves. Just short enough to leave listeners wanting more, and long enough to keep them from feeling shorted.
Scrambled Brains 