Groove Metal

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    Davidian – Our Fear Is Their Force (2012)

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    Delivering a pummeling aural assault, today we have Davidian and their extreme “Our Fear Is Their Force” release. Featuring brutal guitars, hellish vocals and a very intense drumming, this is probably one of the best Thrashcore/Groove Metal releases we have reviewed in a while.

    After the momentum building intro track “F.S.O”, the band quickly explodes into an all-out riffing war with “Behind An Angelic Smile”. The production behind this release is massive and makes speakers shake due to the sheer power behind the guitar work and harsh singing. The band’s sound borders between groovy and melodic, making it very effective and punishing. Some keyboards hints in tracks like “Manmade Hell” nicely give unexpected twists to the band’s pummeling songs.

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    69 Chambers – Torque (2012)

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    Making its way from Switzerland, today we have the 69 Chambers and their sophomore full-length release “Torque”. With almost 65 minutes of catchy and well-crafted Gothic Rock with an emphasis of the rock side of things, this band delivers a quite enjoyable release that will surely grab the attention of fans of female-fronted bands.

    Led by the multi-talented (and super-hot) Nina Treml, 69 Chambers does a great job in combining catchiness with groovy guitars and a very healthy sense of melody, something that bands with longer careers struggle with. The opener “Cause and Effect” features none other than Chrigel Glanzmann of Eluveitie on backing vocals, making this song very aggressive and well rounded. Nina’s vocals are quite enchanting and straight forwards, no need for any soprano crap here.

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    The Kandidate – Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death (2012)

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    Opening 2012 for Napalm Records today we have The Kandidate’s sophomore release “Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death”. The band plays and inferior version of label mates Hatesphere’s Groove infused Thrash Metal. While not entirely bad, “Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death” is an album devoid of any originality and it is as vanilla as you can get.

    Featuring the original Hatesphere singer Jacob Bredahl, this release indeed sound a bit like older Hatesphere without the constant improvement they offered through the years. The crunchy opening track “Death” delivers pretty solid riffing and a very catchy nature, but it kind of feels a bit cold for an opening track. The music gets a bit better in the next track, but it never really picks up. We have some nice powerful riffs that circle around the songs a bit too much and never really hooked us into liking the tracks.

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    Eskeype – Legacy of Truth (2010)

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    All the way from Switzerland today we have a band called Eskeype (is this pronounced Skype?), and their very catchy mixture of Groove Metal and Thrash Metal with some hints of a few other genres mixed in-between. For 13 tracks the band gives us a very in your face approach with hectic drumming, catchy and powerful riffing and aggressive vocals that will exhaust even the most active mosher from our readers.

    Immediately after a very dynamic prologue, the band delivers waves of powerful riffs and aggressive vocals with the first two tracks “The Chronicle’s Origin Part One” and part two. In these two tracks the band quickly demonstrates their ability to craft very catchy guitar sections and pair them with crushing vocals. The melodic passages are excellent and the use of violins (a la Dark Lunacy) is just excellent, giving them a nice Melodic edge to their music.

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    Xerath – II (2011)

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    The bastard children of John Williams and Meshuggah are back with their aptly titled second release “II”. After delivering one of the most interesting and different sounding releases of 2009, the band’s sound is as epic as before with 10 monumental compositions and around 56 minutes of music.

    Immediately after the enthralling opening track “United to Defy”, the band quickly falls into the one-trick-pony category. Their sound in this release is indeed very epic and the massive orchestral arrangements with the groove elements is still as impressive as before, but it feels too much like their last release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Virgin Snatch – Act of Grace (2008)

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    Today in our huge promo-to-review queue we find Virgin Snatch’s “Act of Grace”, the band’s fourth release since their formation on 2001. Playing a very interesting mixture of Trash Metal with Modern Metal elements, more specifically Groove elements, we find “Act of Grace” a very interesting release… musically. The album is very fresh, sounding more like melodic Metal releases in some parts, since there are plenty of well crafted passages that sound like anything, except Trash Metal.

    With a name like Virgin Snatch, we were about to immediately throw this to the queue of Grindcore/’shit we don’t really want to listen’ list, but we decided against it after doing some research on the band. You should not discard them because of this either, since this Polish band is worth a listen.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Kruger – For Death, Glory and the End of the World (2010)

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    Out of the very impressive roster of Listenable Records, we get today another genre-bending band. Kruger hails from Switzerland and their combination of Sludge/Groove and Post-Metal is superb. For over 45 minutes “For Death, Glory and the End of the Word” delivers 9 brutal tracks.

    With the waves of new bands coming out these days it’s very hard to bump into one that makes you fully appreciate the art of crafting a different sound that is both powerful and enthralling. Kruger achieves this since the first song, with a brilliant combination of aggressive ‘Sludgy’ riffs, aggressive vocals and solid drumming.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Noctiferia – Death Culture (2010)

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    If you ever wondered what would happen if Fear Factory, Meshuggah and Gojira had a genetically engineered son, then it would sound just like Noctiferia does. The band has spent plenty of years trying to find their own sound, and on their earlier days they focused more on Melodic Black/Death Metal. On this 2010, they deliver “Death Culture” an album so rich in both style and content that will have you listening to it for quite a while in order to fully digest it.

    The band features the chugging riffing of Fear Factory, combined with the surgically precise (and impressive) drumming of Meshuggah. On top of these elements they offer aggressive vocals like Gojira, Hacride, etc, making their sound very dynamic and brutal. The band has surely outdone themselves with “Death Culture” since it’s their best effort to date.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Arma Gathas – Dead To This World (2010)

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    After all the countless Trash Metal releases we have reviewed in 2010, we finally get a break with a band that incorporates other elements to this genre, and makes it sound very different and fresh. Arma Gathas hails from Switzerland and their combination of Trash, Groove and some Hardcore elements makes them sound both powerful and fresh.

    If we had to guess where this band is from without doing research, we would have guess that they came from France, since Arma Gathas sounds like a Trashier version of Hacride, Gojira, etc. The riffing in “Dead To This World” is very Trash Metal oriented but with more aggressive vocals and different rhythms thrown into the mix.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Fear Factory – Mechanize (2010)

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    The all mighty Fear Factory as back with Dino Cazares on guitars and replacing longtime founding member Raymond Herrera we have none other than Gene Hoglan. “Mechanize” is the bands first full-length album in 5 years and while not one of their best, is a complete improvement over the lackluster “Transgression”.

    For a band that has been so long in the scene, you can always rely on Fear Factory to release a straight forward in-your-face type of release. “Mechanize” is not an exception to this rule, but however like the band’s sound is pretty formulaic by now and it’s just another release with not much inspiration.

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