Luke Offield/Wakings/2014 CD Review

  Luke  Offield  is  a  solo  artist  from  Columbia,  Missouri  that  plays  a  mixture  of  melodic  black/death  metal,  country,  jazz  and  post  rock  and  this  is  a  review  of  his  self  released  2014  album  "Wakings".

  The  album  starts  out  with  gothic  horror  sounding  keyboards  and  rain  sounds  before  going  into  a  more  melodic  black  metal  direction  along  with  some  grim  screams  as  well  as  bringing  in  some  death  metal  elements  and  after  awhile  solos  and  prog  elements  are  added  into  the  track.

  On  the  following  song  the  music  goes  for  more  of  a  post  rock  direction  while  still  having  elements  of  metal  and  the  song  is  all  instrumental  along  with  a  good  amount  of  melody  and  a  small  amount  of  solos  and  when  it  goes  into  the  next  track  the  music  starts  going  for  more  of  a  country  rock  sound  along  with a  blues  and  rockabilly  feeling.

  The  following  track  brings  a  more  80's  new  wave  sound  in  along  with  some  melodic  vocals  and  the  following  track  is  a  jazz  instrumental  and  the  last  track  sees  the  music  making  a  return  to  melodic  black  metal  while  also  having  a  psychedelic  rock  feeling  as  well  as  some  death  metal  growls  and  grim  screams.

  With  this  album  Luke  Offield  brings  in  a  different  sound  to  every  track  and  does  not  follow  any  rules  and  creates  an  album  that  has  no  musical  category  while  you  can  hear  a  good  amount  of  metal  elements  along  with  a  powerful  sounding  production  where  you  can  hear  all  of  the  musical  instruments  that are  present  on  this  recording.

  In  my  opinion  Like  Offield  is  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  black,  death,  post  metal,  rock,  jazz  and  country  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  solo  artist.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Death  Ender"  and  "A  Grand  Conclusion  Od  A  Minute  existence".  8  out  of  10.

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Geist/The Dark Core/2014 Single Review

  Geist  are  a  band  from  Columbus,  Missouri  that  plays  a  very  technical,  progressive  and  melodic  form  of  black/death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  the  2  tracks  that  they  have  post  on  their  Reverbnation  page.

  The  first  tack  "The  Dark  Core"  starts  out  with  a  very  heavy  and  progressive  sound  along  with  growing  up  a  bit  and  then  slowing  down  and  adding  in  a  mixture of  black  and  death  vocals  as  well  as  all  of  the  musical  instruments  sounding  very  powerful  and  then  clean  guitars  are  added  into  the  song  before  returning  back  to  a  heavier  direction  and  melody  is  added  into  the  guitar  riffing.

  The  second  track  "Aeolipile"  starts  off  with  fore  adding  in  vocals  which  are  in  the  more  blackened  death  metal  vein  and  when  they  add  in  leads  they  bring  in  a  70's  metal  feeling  and  after  awhile  the  riffing  gets  more  technical  and  towards  the  end  melodic  vocals  are  added  into  the  song.

  With  these  2  songs  Geist  show  a  great  amount  of  talent  and  skill  with  the  way  they  mix  melodic  and  progressive  black  metal  with  the  more  mid  paced  technical  style  of  death  metal  along  with  a  powerful  and  professional  sounding  production  as  well  as  some  dark  lyrics.

  In  my  opinion  Geist  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic,  progressive  and  technical  black/death  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  their  music.  8  out  of  10.  http://www.reverbnation.com/geistmetal#

    

Chiral Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the musical project?
- Hi, I’m Teo and I’m the one and only member of this project, named “Chiral”.
This project was actually born at the beginning of this year, but the idea of this one-man band and the tracks on “Winter Eternal” are pretty old!
The band was not born as a serious project, however when I listened to the first complete song I understood that I should have shared my music with other people, so here I am!

2.How would you describe your musical sound?
Good question!
I think my sound is a melting pot of many different musical genres: progressive rock & metal first of all, these are my background.
Then obviously Death Metal, Black Metal, Hard Rock and even Fusion and some jazz stuff, sometimes.
But I think that now my sound is much closer to the Swedish style melodic death/black metal of the early 90’s.

3.Recently you have released a single that was in the more raw black metal direction, do you see yourself working with this genre more in the future?
Absolutely! I’ll give you a little preview: the next release, probably an EP, will be on the same path of my latest single (Atto I: Oblio) which it’ll be part of the EP itself.
It was very nice for me the recording session of “Atto I”, and I’ve also appreciated the final result of the song. So I said to myself: Why not to try to record an entire EP in this way?

4.Can you tell us a little bit more about the lyrical topics and subjects you explore with your music?
Basically the lyrical themes of the demo are about darkness, nature and love (in a way)….
The lyrics of Atto I: Oblio (my new single) is mainly about suicide.
Instead the lyrics I’m writing for the full length are based on Atheism, pain, solitude and sadness.
As you may notice I’m full of happy themes! Hahaha

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Chiral'?
This will be funny!
In a nutshell Chiral means that a molecule is not superimposable on its mirror image. It’s a Chemical law.
But, this is the funny part, I got the inspiration watching an episode of “Breaking Bad”, the famous TV series, in which the protagonist talks about Chirality!

6.Currently there is only 1 member involved with the project, are you planning on working with other musicians in the future or do you chose to remain solo?
Honestly, for the moment I prefer to remain a solo project. But I have to confess that on my next works probably there will be a few special guests. One of them is a good lead guitarist, Ludovico Cuoghi, who will play guitar solos in some tracks.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
No, I haven’t received any interest from any labels yet. However, the idea to remain independent is fine to me. But if I receive any good offer I will think about it.


8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
It may sound strange but I’m noticing that my music is more appreciated by black metal fans, I don’t really understand why. Hahaha
It’s not a problem to me, but I think that my EP (Winter Eternal) sounds very melodic death.
Anyway, assumed that Chiral is a brand new project, it has only 3 months of life, the feedbacks received till today are not so bad. However, I hope I could spread my music as much as I can and receive as many feedback and approvals as possible.

9.Are you also involved with any other musical projects?
Nope. The Chiral project, and also my real job (I’m a mechanic) takes me a lot of time so I don’t have it more to dedicate to other projects.

10.When can we expect a full length album?
For a full length album you have to wait at least until this winter, because the recording of a full length takes a lot of time when you’ve to play every single instrument by yourself; but in the meantime there’s going to be another release.

11.What are some bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Certainly the band that has influenced me more of any other are Opeth! I think Akerfeldt is a fucking genius, I love their music upon any other, no doubt.
I’m also very influenced by Porcupine Tree, Katatonia, Insomnium, Wolves In The Throne Room (their music is completely unique and so special) and Thulcandra (a great German band, maybe a bit underrated). As I said before now I’m very influenced by the Swedish death/black metal of the early 90’s, bands like Dissection, Eucharist, Vinterland, Sacramentum, Unanimated, Edge of Sanity and even Naglfar are milestones to me.
I also like other musicians and/or bands from other kind of music, like the Pat Metheny Group (it may sound a bit strange but I like them very much), Dream Theater, Cynic, Eric Clapton and so on…
Nowadays I re-discover the first stuff by Ulver, their early works sounds great.
I’m also listening very often to Omiun Gatherum and Autumn Leaves, which was an extremely underrated melodic death band from Denmark. Try to check out their last work “As Night Conquers Day”!



12.What are some of your non musical interests?
When I don’t play or write some music I like watching TV series, traveling and drink a (two is even better) good beer!
I’ve another hobby in the field of music and it’s to work on my little home studio (WeakLight Home Studio) in which I’ve obviously produced my music.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
First of all, for the one who don’t know me I wanna say that they can follow me on my Facebook profile (https://www.facebook.com/ChiralItaly) or my Bandcamp page (https://chiral27.bandcamp.com/), in which you can download for free my stuff!
I also wanna thank all the people who support me, especially my family, my girlfriend, my friends and a few people met on the net who help me in a way or another, and the ones I hope will support me in the future.
Finally I’d like to thank you for the interview and this ‘zine for this opportunity.
Hail!!!

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Seal Of Solomon Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before can you tell us a little bit about the band?
  We're Seal of Solomon, a blackened-death metal band from Istanbul Turkey with oriental and progressive influences.

 2.Recently you have put out a new album, can you tell us a little bit more about your musical sound?

  The band has it's roots in black and death metal since the beginning. And since we live in Turkey, we all have very rich oriental backgrounds as musicians.
  Finally with joining of Önder Dülger to the band, he brought in his progressive and metalcore influences.
 We've mixed all that we have in one with I The King.

  3.With your band name and the lyrics, the music has a goetic and occult tone to it, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in occultism?

  Especially Can Berk Öcalır and Ozan Murat Özfen had interest in djins, black magic and demonology for years.

>
> 4.The band was originally known as 'Unfurling' in the beginning what was the decision behind the name change?

 To spread the new word of King Solomon and to welcome our new vision.

  5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

  The band haven't played yet under the name of Seal of Solomon but our all time favorite gigs are university festivals. They provide the best demography and energy for our performances. Choreographically we have our concept to follow on stage, it's best not to put it in words.

  6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

 We'll have an album launch in Turkey at first, then we're planning on touring Eastern Europe.
  The details will be in our website soon.

  7.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?

  Much better than what we've expected. Especially after the BlankTV release of our guitar instruction video of the song I The King v2.
  Everyone finds pieces of their own favorite genre in the album.
  8.Are any of the band members involved with any other musical projects these days?

  We're all members of some of the biggest bands of Turkish metal music scene.
  Önder plays lead guitars in Undertakers, Doğu and Ozan play in Furtherial and Tolga plays in Chaosnerve.
  9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

  We use music to express our individual selves under the flag of King Solomon.
  And if our moods would change, probably our music will too. But Seal of Solomon will never sell hapiness or love, that goes without saying.
  We're doing what we love doing the most, and we're impatient to do it on the road.

  10.What are some bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

  Can: Behemoth, Dark Funeral.
  Önder: Meshuggah to ease the hate within, Sergio Altamura to explore, and Iron Maiden to remind me who I am.
  Doğu: Behemoth , Arch Enemy.
  Tolga: Meshuggah, Opeth
  Ozan: Satyricon, Rotting Christ



  11.What are some of your non musical interests?


  Can : Baking Macarons, Playing Xbox.
  Önder: Like Fishing and studying Astronomy and Space Science in Istanbul University.
  Doğu: Origamy and writing essays.
  Tolga: Playing video games.
   Ozan: Drawing and producing animations and comics.




 12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?


  We thank you for letting us spread our thoughts.
 ; And we thank everyone who support our music worldwide

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Suotana/Forgotten Soil Of This Land/2014 Demo Review

  Suotana  are  a  band  from  Finland  that  plays  a  melodic  form  of  black/death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2014  demo  "Forgotten  Soil  Of  this  Land".

  The  demo  starts  out  with  a  very  fast  and  melodic  sound  along  with  blast  beats  and  symphonic  keyboards  and  then  the  high  pitched  screams  kick  in  the  music  goes  for  a  more  melodic  blackened  death  metal  direction  along  with  some  growls  and  you  can  hear  a  lot  of  influences from  bands  of  their  home  country  in  the  solos  and  leads.

  The  following  track  starts  out  with  some  tragic  sounding  keyboards  along  with  symphonic  elements  before  going  into  a  more  heavy  and  melodic  direction   which  also  has  power  metla  influences  being  mixed  in  with  black  and  death  metal  as  well  as  sticking  to  mostly  a  mid  paced  direction  and  the  leads  also  have  a  progressive  metal  feeling  to  them.

  With  this  ep  Suotana  takes  the  melodic  black  metal  sound  of  their  home  country  and  mixes  it  in  with  symphonic  elements  and  death  metal  influences  to  create  their  sound  along  with  a  very  powerful  sounding  production  and  dark  lyrics.

  In  my  opinion  Suotana  are  a  very  great  sounding  symphonic,  melodic  black/death  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  demo.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Forgotten  Soil  Of  the  Land".  8  out  of  10.

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Ad Extirpenda/Cathartic/2014 CD Review

  Ad  Extirpenda  are  a  band  from  France  that  plays  a  symphonic  form  of  black  metal  with  some  death  metal influences  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2014  album  "Cathartic".

  The  album  starts  out  with  a  very  symphonic  sounding  intro  and  after  the  intro  the  music  goes  for  a  more  modern  and  heavy  sound  while  also  keeping  around  the  symphonic  elements  as  well  as  adding  in  more  black  metal  screams  and  melodic  riffing  and  after  awhile  powerful  bass  guitars  and  solos  are  added  into  the  music  and  they  also  bring  a  progressive  feeling  to  the  recording.

   After  awhile  clean  guitars  and  spoken  words  are  added  into  certain  parts  of  the  recording  along  with  a  small  amount  of  clean  singing  being  added  in  at  times  as  well  as  returning on  some  of  the  other  tracks  and  on  the  following  track  classical  guitars  become  a  part  of  the  recording  before  returning  to  a  heavier  direction  along  with  the  vocals  adding  in  a  bit  more  of  a  death  metal  influence  while  also  mostly  sticking  to  a  melodic  black  metal  direction.

  When  we  get  more  into  the  album  the  music  starts  bringing  in  a  mixture  of  both  clean  and  heavy  parts  along  with  the  synths  utilizing  more  avant  garde  sounds  and  at  times you  can  hear  traces  of  medieval  folk  music  in  the  guitar  leads  as  well  as  the  synths  on  the  last  song  and  after  awhile  the  music  starts  utilizing  a  brief  use  of  blast  beats  and  classic  metal  influences  in  some  of  the  tracks.

  With  this  album  Ad  Extirpenda  add  a  modern  approach  to  symphonic  black  metal  along  with  a  powerful  sounding  production  and  lyrics  that  cover  the  French  Inquisition   of  the   14th  and  15  centuries.

  In  my  opinion  Ad  Extirpenda  are  a  very  great  sounding  symphonic  and  melodic  black  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Gnosis"  "Holocauste"  "The  Inquisitor"  and  "Ego  Te  Absolvo".  8  out  of  10.

: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ad-Extirpenda/67853905702

Creinium Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Aleksi: Creinium is a six piece metal band that takes its members' favourite metal (and other) influences, and combines it into a strange but somewhat consistent mixture of this and that. Some of those influences are melodic death, black, doom, progressive and dark metal. If you like even one or two of those genres, Creinium might be a way for you to expand your musical taste.

2.So far you have released a demo and an EP, how would you describe the musical sound that is present on both these recordings?

Aleksi: 'Modern World Tyranny' consists of songs, that were at the time of recording the only 4 songs that were ready. Basically we took what we had ready at the time, and made it into a demo. Some of those songs date back to 2008 - the "newest" ones being from 2010 or something - so MWT actually describes a somewhat pre-Creinium sound. Also MWT was recorded DIY-style like a demo, so that's also what it sounds like - in both good and bad.

'Project Utopia' on the other hand was much more carefully planned, and we actually had to choose 4 songs from 5 ready ones. All of the songs are born after the birth of Creinium, so they give quite an accurate hint on where our sound is going.

Antti: Actually when we recorded drums, guitars and keyboards for MWT the only goal was to find missing members to complete Creinium. We didn't plan to make a release of those recordings and this is the main reason for the poor sounds on MWT.

Aleksi: As our bassist-mixer-masterer-wizard Miiro said: "You can make a cupcake out of shit, but you will still smell the shit."

3.Most of the band members where in 'Path Of Annihilation' what was the cause of that band splitting and the decision behind forming this band?

Aleksi: It was a sum of many things. In 2009-2010 we lost half of POA members, and we hadn't managed to find replacements before me and Antti - the driving force of POA - joined the Finnish Army in 2011. Soon after that we just decided to clean the slate and form a new band. After all, POA's music just wasn't what we wanted to do anymore. POA guitarist Juuso Putti agreed to join us, and that was pretty much it.

4.The lyrics cover dystopian themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in that topic?

Sami: The topic just feels so present in today's news and the media. Seems like it something hits the fan almost every day.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Creinium'?

Aleksi: We wanted to have a short one-word name, that would mean nothing but our band. I juggled quite a few existing words and deliberately misspelled them so that they'd lose any meaning. I came up with the word 'Creinium' and when I didn't find a single hit on Google (or the whole internetz) with that, it had to be it.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Antti: I think our two gigs at PRKL Club, Helsinki have been Creinium's best shows so far. Especially the first one in November 2013 with Noumena and Vermivore, which was our debut gig.

Aleksi: Our music requires quite a lot of concentration, so we can't just mosh our way through a gig, or my drumstick might end up in someone's eye. I think our stage performance is mostly about the precise playing and the variety of feelings our music creates for both us and the audience.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

Aleksi: We'll play one gig before the EP release, and after that we'll embark on the gargantuan Project Utopia World Tour, which covers over 3 gigs in over 2 cities. After recovering from the jet lag we'll probably have a nice summer vacation and continue touring in the fall.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?

Aleksi: Most of our fans are still from Finland, but our fanbase seems to be growing in metalheaded countries such as Germany and Japan, but also in the US. The feedback has been most positive from fans of melodic death, melodic black and progressive (death) metal. People that mainly listen to black and/or death tend to find us not black/death enough, probably because of our strong melodic side.

I think our music offers a little bit of something for everyone to like, but also it may offer that one little thing that one doesn't like at all. Sami's vocals seem to be the most controversial issue. But that's exactly what we want vocals to sound like, so if you can't stand them, I guess we just aren't the band for you.

9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

Antti: Me and Aleksi are always composing new music, and currently quite a few new songs are starting to take shape. Should we get all the songs written during the summer, we might even start the slow but steady recording process in early 2015. But it all depends on how fast we get the songs ready.

Aleksi: We could make a double album of semi crappy songs that would please 80% of our fans like right now. But our standards are so high nowadays that the writing and the refining takes time. We write music primarily for our own taste, and we just can't cope with songs that we aren't 110% happy with.

Antti: Our first full length will be blacker, darker and more aggressive, and our songs are probably going to be faster in general.

Aleksi: Antti pretty much covered it. All in all our black parts will be blacker, doom parts doomer, prog parts progger and so on. And if I can up my lousy drumming speed, the songs will be faster. Of course we still have a lot of writing to do, so neither of us really knows what kind of crazy shit we might come up with.

10.What are some bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Aleksi: I personally listen to almost all kinds of metal, apart from everything older than myself and all the oldschool non melodic stuff. But I've also taken influences from electronic music, and from music in movies and games, most notably Skyrim and Diablo II. Bands that deserve to get mentioned are Dimmu Borgir, Carach Angren, Omnium Gatherum, Opeth (pre-Heritage!!), Wintersun, Finntroll, Dark Fortress, Shade Empire, Shape Of Despair, Darude, Swallow The Sun, Moonsorrow, Crionics, Stam1na and so on...

Antti: I listen to music from side to side but mostly metal. I've taken influences from jazz to extreme black metal and almost everything between them apart from electronic music that I just can't value. Some of the artists and composers I greatly respect are Mike Oldfield, Iiro Rantala, Jordan Rudess, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Juha Raivio, Devin Townsend, Mathias Nygård, Obsidian C. and of course their bands & projects. Few other bands to mention are Von Hertzen Brothers, Uriah Heep, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Periphery, Katatonia, Ghost, Job For a Cowboy and Ghost Brigade.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

Aleksi: Not much non musical.. The Xbox, South Park, red wine...?

Antti: Not much here either. Finnish nature and good food & wine.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Everyone, please buy Project Utopia so we can get money for gas. Living in Finland is very expensive, especially for poor students like half of us.

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