Drop Oblivion "Damaged Goods" Single Review

It's been a busy time, we've been slacking on reviews and we're sorry. We are back though, with lots of stuff in the works including a rather big and probably unexpected review coming tomorrow. Today though, we are talking about a band that reached out recently to get our opinion on their new track "Damaged Goods". The band in question is Drop Oblivion, a new Melodic Death Metal band out to find their feet with this track, so lets get in there and check it out!

        Instantly, "Damaged Goods" gives you the full Melodic Death Metal experience. The intro isn't anything to extraordinary, but gives you the taste for blood. The vocals, once they kick in take on an almost Blackened Death approach. I am personally a fan of the vocals, they're strong and match the tone and pace of the song incredibly well, which is where a lot of Melodic Metal falls short. Front to back, musically "Damaged Goods" is a great piece of work, but there are a couple of complaints to note. First of all, the drums and bass are mixed so low that one is inaudible and the other is almost there (in sure you can guess which is which). The other is the fact that Drop Oblivion uses symphonics in the music, now that isn't the complaint as I love symphonic Metal, Drop Oblivion seem almost intimidated to make the commitment to having the symphonic element in the music with, yet again, it being mixed so low is just sounds like filler to the music itself. The vocals are high above everything else with the rest of the instrumentals fighting for second place.

        I'm a big fan of Drop Oblivion's single and you will absolutely be seeing a review of a full release when the time comes, the music itself is great and these guys know what they're doing and while the aforementioned complaints do take away from the sound a little bit, "Damaged Goods" is still a killer piece of Melodic Death Metal anyone should check out!

Necronomicon "Advent of the Human God" Review

                Canada has been releasing some epic Metal the past few years, always having been a part of the Metal scene and giving bands a huge start like Possessed for example, but not having a ton of international bands ourselves. It’s more than deserved that we start getting some international recognition for more bands, Crimson Shadows and Revenge both touring with big bands internationally and getting huge American and European support and Crimson Shadows and Vesperia both playing and winning the international Wacken Open Air Battle! Today, we are here to talk about a band that has toured with Greek symphonic masters Septicflesh and Italian Death Metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse and found their home on the internationally renowned label Season Of Mist, known for being a home for all the best Extreme/Death/Black Metal. If you somehow don’t know yet we are talking about French-Canadian Symphonic Black Metal band, Necronomicon, who have destroyed plenty of stages on their tours, impressed the hell out of me when I saw them in 2014.

                Enough of a background on Canada and Necronomicon, let’s talk about now. Necronomicon’s “Advent of the Human God” is in every section, juicy symphonic goodness and blistering Black Metal mayhem, starting with “The Descent,” “Advent of the Human God” and “The Golden Gods” you’ll learn the true headbanging prowess of what this band offers all the way from the beginning of their symphonic opener. The album starts to get really interesting at their second symphonic interlude “Okkultis Trinity” introducing heavy brass, choir and just all together sounding incredibly classical and chilling, but in “Unification of the Four Pillars” with the constant blastbeats, backed with a fairly classic Black Metal riff and fucking horns this song sounds all sorts of epic. At about the midway point the song breaks into what can be seen as a breakdown, the beat turns almost tribal and the choir begins to create one hell of an atmosphere that sounds like you just walked into a ritual. “Crown of Thorns” comes next which has been released already and with the way people are talking about it, I’m not the only one who would say good things about it. Last pair I want to talk about is “Gaia” and “(I) Bringer of Light,” the former is a great instrumental build up with crows cawing and bells and choir vocals and thunder, if you need a song to open a movie or game and set an atmosphere of death, this is it, I can picture the pallbearers carrying the body of an emperor with this playing. The latter of the two is the song that follows that if I had my say, would be a live staple with its melodic Black riffs and not as insane but mesmerizing drum patters. This song would be a joy to headbangers and mosh pitters alike, the riff and drum patters are perfect to bang your head against the stage like you never did before and the constant aggression would never let the pit slow down.

                Here’s what we have learnt today, Black Metal is great, Symphonic Black Metal is awesome and Necronomicon are outstanding. This album is a banger from beginning to end and the only negative thing I have to say about it is that I think there are too many little symphonic interludes that are tracks of their own, I do think they should stay on the album as they give the album it’s atmosphere but maybe placed at the beginning or end of a song not being a song of your own, this is just my thoughts though.

85/100

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*Starting this Thursday we will be having Throwback Thursday, a day where we look back at albums that were beloved (or no so much) and see how they stand up now*

Rhapsody of Fire "Into The Legend" Review

We are going to change our format here starting with the always reliable Rhapsody of Fire, beginning now bands will be marked out of 100 points. Rhapsody of Fire know how to draw anyone’s attention. Like stories? Here you go! Like insane solos? You got it! Fan of orchestral music? Look no further. Every band has a breaking point though, they always release a bad album and as of 2013 with “Dark Wings of Steel,” Rhapsody of Fire hadn’t, so maybe this time around you shouldn't hold your expectations so high for 2016s “Into The Legend”?

                Our story begins with the 3 minute instrumental intro “In Principio,” well maybe instrumental isn’t the way to think about it as there are choir vocals to help to song along but before you know it the song breaks into our first actual onslaught, ”Distant Sky.” Right off the bat you’re hit with a guitar solo, the kind that will put “Eruption” to shame before being welcomed by Fabio Lione’s voice that matches pitch with everything so perfectly soaring above all the sounds and singing so clearly. The chorus of “Distant Sky” shows off how harmonies between the guitars, orchestration, choir and Lione’s vocals can send chills straight down your spine and following the second chorus comes and even greater guitar solo!

                The title track “Into the Legend” begins with a folk orchestration sound before a chugging riff begins with choir vocals and finally speedy riffs and Lione’s vocals follow. Rhapsody of Fire is one of the few bands I’ve found who can use a pre-chorus very well in their songs and know when it works, with “Into the Legend” Lione’s vocals get gritty and aggressive over a darker riff before breaking into how they will go into the legend, convincing you that the character will become a legend. “Winter’s Rain” has one of my favourite intros to a song ever with a tapping riff that plays quickly up the scale and continues throughout the song with Lione singing his heart out. The pacing of this song is perfect and the orchestration reminds me of Nightwish.

                “Shining Star” is the slow song of the album, slowing everything down immensely with acoustic guitars, sad orchestration and Lione sounding like he’s about to cry, this is the kind of song you could put on a radio station or in a movie and someone would shed a tear. “Shining Star” does something that most fail to do for me in metal album, it draws me in. I can feel it, this song has emotion, where most bands that put slow songs in completely ruin the tempo of the album, this song is welcome and is a nice break, hell live this song may even make me shed a tear, it’s beautiful.

                On the other hand we have “Rage of Darkness” back up to speed, laughing and mocking you for slow dancing with the girl beside you. The main part of this song that made it memorable for me was the solos, man the solos, Alessandro Sala playing a bass solo, followed by a guitar solo that copies what was just played, then back to bass and an insane guitar solo and to round it out, a keyboard solo. Everyone gets their time in the sun with this song and if any this song should become a live staple just because of the amount of noise I can picture the crowd making as this section begins. To close out the album is the epic 17minute “The Kiss of Light,” which takes aspects from throughout the entire album, rounds them together bundled up tight and shows you how an epic should be done.

                Everything in this album blew me away, the pacing, the super sad slow song, the orchestration work, it’s a special album. It’s been a long time since I sat down and really enjoyed a new Power Metal album, but Rhapsody of Fire absolutely killed it with "Into the Legend," but don’t just take my word for it, pick up the album through AFM Records, it’s 67 minutes of outstanding musicianship, perfect harmony and face melting solos.

100/100

Silent Line - Shattered Shores Review

               Concept albums are always something special to talk about, instead of just being song after song generally with no rhyme or reason for the lyrics from one song to the next, concept albums tell a story with each song being a new chapter. Silent Line have written what is possibly the most Canadian concept album ever with their new album “Shattered Shores” being about isolation in the cold. This is an album that shows inspiration and how unique an album can easily be, all you need to do is find the edge of your comfort zone and push past it.

                                                  

                A small mention of the story, it’s about dissertation. Our character is stranded on an island, alone, freezing. The constant reoccurrence of the cold, of frost, of night, is enough the freeze the soul of even the more warm hearted person.

                “Shattered Shores” is Silent Line’s first attempt at a concept album, although it doesn’t exactly sound it. The album starts off strong with “Frost of the Night” but it’s the second song “Erosion” that really shines and draws the listener it. “Erosion” is a more fast pace song filled with melodic riffs and a surprisingly catchy chorus, even if you don’t understand what front man Mike Burton is saying without reading the lyrics off a page. Speaking of Mr. Burton, what’s the closest you’ve ever heard to a band sounding like Children Of Bodom? I’m only asking because “Black and White” sounds like a Bodom song and some of the vocals even sound like Alexi Laiho himself! It’s quite eerie.

                Skip a couple songs down and you’ll find “Summersong” which opens with an acoustic guitar and choral singing before kicking into the heavy. “Summersong” takes complete 180s constantly, after some insanely harsh Death Metal vocals and instrumentals, clean singing and acoustic guitars come back and show the contrast this band can take to effect the emotion of the listener, you can almost hear desperation in the vocals with the changes, and the character knows the end is coming. “Shattered Shores II: A New Beginning” take us on another journey, a journey through the night, a journey to who knows where but its somewhere in the freezing darkness. This song features one of my favourite riffs in it, the moment the song speeds up you’ll hear it, I don’t know what it is but it’s an incredibly attractive riff. Any fans of The Faceless here? They might not do their clean vocals too often but the chorus section of this song sounds a lot like The Faceless cleans, although the melodic riffs in the background make make “Shattered Shores II” far better.

                I personally am a huge fan of concept albums, Wintersun, King Diamond, Rhapsody, all bands that have written some outstanding concept albums. Although King can make the hair on the back of my neck stand tall, sitting here with the lyrics and the music Silent Line are chilling me right to the bone. This is an album of sheer magnitude, a concept album with a story to tell and one that does it well, they say if a story is written well you can see it in your head, well this story even comes with a soundtrack to accompany the mental movie.

4.5/5

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