Album Reviews

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    Peste Noire - L’Ordure à l’État Pur (2011)

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    Black Metal visionaries Peste Noire have been releasing hit-or-miss albums for the past 10 years and none of them (although good) have impressed us as much as “L’Ordure à l’État Pur”. Carved out of their usual ‘let’s mix everything we can’ approach, this new album reaches new heights when it comes to amazing dissonant passages that at first seem totally random and disconnected.

    Fusing elements of Punk, Polka, electronic beats, Shoegaze and everything in between, Peste Noire delivers one hour of pure musical depravity that somehow will sneak into your subconscious and make you appreciate it for what it is. Opening with the super weird “Casse, Pèches, Fractures et Traditions”, we get some typical Black Metal vocals on top of thick and diabolical atmosphere that is generated by precise BM-like riffing and a punishing bass guitar line. Around the 5 minute mark the song just gets plain weird diverging into a polka/ska-ish passage and we totally love this sudden change.

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    Frozen Dawn – The Old Prophecy of Winterland (2011)

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    While there is a great resurgence of old school Thrash Metal these days, most Black Metal bands seem to be either stuck in the raw toilet-recorded sound of the past or in the faster-than hell with no real aim side of things. Luckily, Frozen Dawn delivers an excellent release featuring the sound that made Black Metal appealing in the past. Taking influences form the old-school Swedish and Norwegian scenes, more particularly bands like Dissection, Watain, Satyricon and Darth Throne, “The Old Prophecy of Winterland” features nearly 50 minutes of Black Metal you won’t want to miss.

    Focusing on powerful and catchy guitar riffing, rhythmical drums (with blast-beast of course) and ‘manly’ vocals, Frozen Dawn seems to have re-captured the sound of the past and pushes it a bit forward with great production values and catchy songs. After a one minute opening track, “Black Spells” instantly delivers a catchy riff that while used through the whole song, it never get’s old and sounds exactly like what BM should sound like.

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    Atanab – Black Magic (2010)

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    From Spain/Colombia’s Mighty Hordes Productions, today we have a re-issue of a 2006 release that nicely combines brutality with melody and delivers almost 40 minutes of pure fucking Black Metal. “Black Magic” is one of those releases that is very brutal and chaotic, but also excellently mixed and sounds very clean in comparison to most of the bands trying to be as brutal as Atanab.

    Wasting no time, the band starts creating a thick evil atmosphere since the intro track and with “Is Sentence of Satan” they deliver a very impressive first blow. In this track we have hellish vocals, massive drumming and powerful riffing, all delivered at a very high intensity. In a more atmospheric way, “Sons of Evil” delivers the same brutal sound but at a slower and more painful tempo. We particularly enjoy the subtle keyboards that are never overdone and just add the right amount of atmosphere to the music.

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    Eternal Chaos – Dark Gods of the Eternal (2010)

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    Once again the people over at Mighty Hordes productions deliver a very powerful and intense Black Metal release that will quench your thirst for high-paced devastating music. However, “Dark Gods of the Eternal” is one of those releases the clearly sacrifices the quality of the music for high-paced hellish brutality with no clear aim or direction. While this might be exactly your cup of tea, we expected a little more from these excellent musicians.

    Opening with the traditional intro song, the band at least shakes things up a bit and includes some shrieks, some riffing and drumming instead of the cliché keyboard/sample approach. Immediately after, “Lord of Chaos” blows through your speakers with some very intense drumming and bestial riffing creating a purely chaotic and excellent atmosphere. In a more Gorgoroth-like fashion, “The Black Flame Spirit” delivers powerful singing and somewhat entertaining riffing that keeps things fresh and fucking intense.

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    Astarium – Dethroned of Impostor (2011)

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    In the very saturated genre of Atmospheric/Symphonic Black Metal is very hard to standout since most bands sound the same or just sound like shit. However, Astarium from Russia manages to create a positive impression due to the overall sound of their music: not too raw, not too brutal, not too fake (except for the drums). In “Dethroned of Impostor”, we are presented with 40 minutes of engaging music.

    Being a one man band, Astarium is limited to using a drum machine (or similar) and this is probably the weakest element of the release, since when they go ape shit, they sound as fake as Pamela Anderson’s titties look. After the creepy opener intro, “Bloodshed Must Goes On” (some grammar check wouldn’t hurt before making the song titles), delivers a nice and brutal attack of fast ‘drums’, traditional guitar riffs and a combination of pseudo growls with pseudo shrieks. The music is very familiar to Limbonic Art (early) and even some hints of Mysticum, etc.

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    Lock Up – Necropolis Transparent (2011)

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    After almost 10 years since their last album, Lock Up bounces back from the death of Jesse Pintado, and delivers 16 crushing blows of Death Metal. Featuring Anton Reisenegger on guitars and Tomas Lindberg on vocals, Shane Embury and Nick Barker have managed to put together an even stronger line-up than before, and you can clearly hear this in “Necropolis Transparent”.

    Since the relentless opener “Brethren of the Pentagram”, the punishing drumming is the first highlight to be noted. Then as you keep going through tracks like “Accelerated Mutation”, “Necropolis Transparent”, “Anvil of Flesh” and “Unseen Enemy”, the powerful riffing of Reisenegger creates very brutal and engaging tracks. Bordering in almost Black Metal riffing, some songs are something you don’t quite hear everyday. The brutality is there musically and they just need Linberg’s screams, and Embury’s pounding bass guitar line to push the songs into full-on headbanging anthems.

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    All Shall Perish – This is Where It Ends (2011)

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    As you all know, we mostly have anything Deathcore/Metalcore related so we dreaded to review the new album of All Shall Perish titled “This is Where It Ends”. Three years have passed since their last effort (“Awaken the Dreamers”) and with a new drummer and guitar player (Adam Pierce and Francesco Artusato, respectively) they return with 12 punish tracks of unimaginative (but powerful) guitar work, vocal layering, and brutal drumming.

    Opening with the brutal “Divine Illusion” we can perfectly hear what most of the whole album is about: growls, shrieks, pounding bass guitar and traditional Deathcore riffing. If you are a Deathcore fan, this is pretty much as good as it gets for you, but if you are looking for something more ‘innovative’ or at least a bit different, get a different CD. A particular thing to notice is the guitar solos, they sound different than before a bit more creative we might even say, and this is probably due to Fancesco Artusato’s sick guitar skills.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Astarium – Invasion to Forbidden (2011)

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    As we all know most one-man bands suck, with a very few exceptions they are just outlets for untalented people to produce what they call ‘music’. Going with this notion, I was gladly surprised by the quality of Astarium’s music, a one-man band from Novosibirsk, Russia. Getting strange looking envelopes from far away places in the world is one of the thrills of working for Infernal Masquerade and this time, the envelope also delivers good music (something that is not the case at least 50% of the time).

    “Invasion to Forbidden” is the latest EP from this Symphonic/Atmospheric Black Metal band that while not having the best sound quality or musical equipment, it can surely create a eerie atmosphere and deliver 16 minutes of creepy as shit Black Metal.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    REVIEW: Lapis Lazuli – A Loss Made Forever (2011)

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    Arriving all the way from Sweden, today out of our stack of band-submitted promos, we have Lapis Lazuli and their second full-length album “A Loss Made Forever”. Our first impression was that there was no way this band was not signed. For over 30 minutes, these Swedes treat us to seven very professional songs of emotionally charged Symphonic/Gothic Metal.

    Opening with the traditional introduction “Ascension”, we get some glimpses of the powerful keyboards behind this band as soon as the song starts. With the super catchy “A Loss Made Forever” we finally get to hear the band’s enchanting female vocals, courtesy of Frida Eurenius. While there are hundreds of female vocals emerging every day, Frida’s pipes are very unique in the sense that they mix sweetness with power in a very balanced way. The song also features very nice keyboard arrangements crafting a very emotive atmosphere nicely contrasted by powerful guitars.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Helevorn – Forthcoming Displeasures (2010)

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    Having recently ‘discovered’ Helevorn at WGT 2011, we set out to find all their releases once we got back to the USA. Playing a mixture of Death/Doom Metal with some Gothic elements, Helevorn is one of the last remaining bands that keep the genre alive. With “Forthcoming Displeasures”, these Spaniards have cranked out 50+ minutes of crushing music that will surely impress any fan of the genre.

    Since the opener “From Our Glorious Days”, the mood is set to dark and desolate place that only keeps getting more and more depressing over the tracks presented in this release. The mixture of bleak clean vocals with the crushing (and proper) growls makes the band a double threat and truly delivers in all emotional ranges. Opening with some atmospheric keyboards we have “Descent”. Keyboards provide a nice backdrop through this release and never get on the way of the crushing riffs, mournful vocals and mid-tempo structures that we all love from Death/Doom Metal bands.

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