Aegrum/The Arrival/Narcoleptica Productions/2015 EP Review

  Aegrum  are  a  band  from  Indonesia  that  plays  a  very  symphonic  form  of  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  ep  "The  Arrival"  which  was  released  by  Narcoleptica  Productions.

  Dark  sounding  keyboards  start  off  the  album  and  slowly  start  to  evolve  into  more  of  a  symphonic  direction  and  after  the  intro  the  music  starts  getting  a  lot  more  heavier  while  still  having  the  symphonic  sounds of  the  intro  as  well  as  bringing  in  grim  black  metal  screams  along  with  a  few  blast  beats  being  utilized  at  times.

  When  spoken  word  parts  are  utilized  they  give  the  music  more  of  a  ritualistic  feeling  and  the  riffs  also  utilize  a  great  amount  of  melody  and  as  the  album  progresses  clean  playing  can  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  there  are  also  a  couple  of  instrumental  tracks  and  the  symphonic  elements  are  more  related  to  the  mid  90's  era  of  the  genre.

  Aegrum  plays  a  style  of  symphonic  black  metal  that  is  very  dark  and  closer  to  the  original  style  of  the  genre,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  while  the  lyrics  cover  Darkness,  Mysticism  and  Satanism  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Aegrum  are  a  very  great  sounding  symphonic  black  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  ep.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Eternal  Whisper  Of  The  Dark  Forest"  and  "The  Ancient  Ov  Cult".  8  out  of  10.

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Revogar/Vale Dos Suicidas/Narcoleptica Productions/2015 Cassette Re-Issue Review

  Revogar  are  a  band  from  Brazil  that  plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2010  album  "Vale  Dos  Suicidas"  which  was  re-issued  in  2015  on  cassette  by  Narcoleptica  Productions.

  A  very  fast,  brutla  and  technical  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  a  great  amount  of  melodic  leads  that  dominate  throughout  the  recording  and  after  awhile  blast  beats,  grim  black  metal  screams  and  deep  growls  are  added  into  the  music  and  after  awhile  clean  playing  can  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording.

  A  good  portion  of  the  riffs  bring  in  a  great  amount  of  melody  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  as  the  album  progresses  there are  some  acoustic  guitars  added  onto a  few  of  the  tracks  along  with  a  different  song  that  uses  a  small  amount  of  spoken  word  parts  while  the  main  focus  remains  more  on  a  melodic  black/death  metal  sound.

  Revogar  plays  a  style  that  mixes  the  melodic  death  and  black  metal  sounds  of  the  mid  90's  and  the  music  has  a  heavy  Swedish  feeling  to  it,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the lyrics  are  written  in  their  native  tongue  and  cover  Anti  Christianity,  Occultism  and  Death  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Revogar  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Hipocrisia  Crista"  "Solo  Maldito"  and  "Vale Dos Suicidas".  8  out  of  10.  

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Wrathage Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording of the new album?
Scythe:
Well first of all thanks for the interest and the review, it was great after seven years of absence to read the first DISCIPLINE review \,,/
After the album was finished we of course started looking for labels for possible collaboration on the release and finalising the booklet designs and all the promo materials, shirts etc. and since we're a pretty much do-it-yourself band it all takes it's time to get things done. Also as we're not rehearsing nowadays for live performances we're already planning the next release and choosing the song drafts on which to work on. Also we're in the process of making a music video for the song "Walking to death" from DISCIPLINE.

2.You have a new album coming out in March, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?
Scythe:

There's a lot of that good old late 90's second wave black metal atmosphere combined with really cool guitar work and Finnish harshness. I think we complicated things a bit too much on Crawlspace antipathy just to make it sound more progressive or unusual, this time we weren't pushing to make everything sound unique or difficult, we just let the music take it's course and let it go where it needed to go and how we enjoyed playing the songs. So I think the song structures have a more constant feeling to them and thus propably a bit more accessible. Also we haven't been that big on guitar solos earlier so now with H.Beast and Viha on the line-up there's a lot of magnificent guitar porn on many of the songs.

3.This is the first album to be released in 7 years, can you tell us a little bit more about the gap between releases?

Scythe:
We have never been really efficient in producing material, we get a lot of ideas and drafts but a lot of good stuff never gets made into a song and released as we can't finalise them. Also this is the first full lenght album we have done and this time we recorded everything by ourselves and that was a learning experience. Next time I think it will go a lot more smoothly, I promise it won't take seven years this time :) There's also some really old stuff on this album, on "Distortion" there is a couple of old D.V Grim riffs from his 1999 song "Into the holocaust" which has never been properly released, I just really thought they went well with the other parts of the song and put the final song together, also "Walking to death" first draft was done in 2003 with a really heavy and slow sluggish touch where as the final version is a whole lot of different than what originally planned.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the newer music?
Scythe:
I could give it a go but I'll let Koba who writes all of our lyrics tell you about his take on Black metal and things.

Koba:
For me the reason I work in the medium of Black Metal is that I see BM still, though it's not a new thing anymore, in the frontline of cultural evolution. BM is a force driving progress, since it hasn't stagnated into a doctrine and it continues to challenge new boundries. Of course there was this misunderstanding that true BM is set thing, but that too was challenged. Rebellion is to me what drives humanity forward. This could be traced back to Albert Camus and his collection of essays titled the Rebel (originally in french: le'revoltee). Camus's philosophy of the Absurd is also close to my thinking.

Death in Black Metal is dominant as is Darkness and desolation. They all are imagery and symbols of the soulscape. Death is a part of life as evil, or whatever one decides to call it, is of the whole of being human. Religious and moral hypochrisy is to me appalling, and the cry for death and absolute annihilation is not: it is a real sensation, even if it is infantile and selfish. Most feelings are everything but exulting. This is not how I thought in the beginning or earlier on, but this is how I see it now.

The political aspects are new to BM, but I see it as a natural progress of evolution within BM to take on new areas and enemies. BM has nor a BM artist doesn't need to shout out the hidden death yearns or to showcase a prayer for destruction: destruction and death of the palnet are evident and humanity as a mass is working directly towards those ends. BM can move on to pin point the hypocrisy of polithcs and other codes of human conduct that are as absurd as dogmatized religion. Maybe politicians should come out in the open with their real intentions and the effects of their decisions on the course of all existance. 248 million years ago 99% of all living organisms were annihilated. Politicians have a way to go to achieve this, but they're on the right track.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Wrathage'?
Scythe:
A bunch of immortal angry youngsters from Northern Finland gettin' drunk and playing metal music:) I came up with the name when I was like 16 years old and you know teenagers are always angry at something and it sounded cool so it was chosen as the band name. I think the original work in progress name was a really cheesy and cliche one called "autumnal dusk", it sounded nothing like us and thus wasn't chosen.

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?
Scythe:
The first one is always huge and we were lucky to be opening up for DISMEMBER with DEATHBOUND as our first ever gig so there was a good crowd there and all went really well. However the best ever respond has been in Jalometalli Winterfest 2007 with a lot of young metalheads banging their heads out and a couple of great moshpits emerging occasionally, it was an amazing feeling to perform to that crowd (cheers to everyone who were there \,,/). But what it looks like? I think a Half a dozen good looking fat metalheads from Finland :) HAHAHAAA!!!...\,,/ Well not that fat anymore. We enjoy playing live, I like both the making and performing of the music, however now as we have spread the band all over Finland we're not actively rehearsing and thus propably we'll be releasing new material more frequently.

7.Do you have an any or show plans once the new album is released?
Scythe:
Nothing now, we'll first see how well it is received and whether we receive any good offers, we haven't rehearsed in a couple of years at all so in order to get the live-performance solid we'd have to rehearse quite a lot and that needs a good motivation to get the crew together.

8.On the new album you did a Morbid Angel cover, what was the decision behind doing one of your own versions of their songs?
Scythe:
Actually I was thinking of doing Emperor's "With strenght I burn" but untill that was rehearsed Kuisma had already recorded the drums for the Morbid angel song and since it's a really bad ass song we decided to do our intepretation of it. It was also nice to hear and see H.Beast playing Morbid angel solos \,,/.

9.The new album is coming out on Maa Productions, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
Scythe:
Well there isn't actually a lot to tell, the communication has been limited to facts about the release. But how we came into co-operations is that I noticed them releasing the latest "As light dies" album so I took contact to them and since they were interested in releasing the album and what I had heard from others they seemed to handle their business really well so we took their offer. And what I've heard Japan is one of the few markets nowadays where people are buying more CD's where as pretty much everywhere else the sales are plummetting.

10.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by both fans of black and death metal?
Scythe:
Based on our previous releases I think Sweden hates us:) HAHAHAA!!! (Please someone prove me wrong?) A lot of good feedback mostly, some of the more underground true black metal circles haven't been too fond of our style which can be understood but in overall we're really pleased to see how well people from across the globe have understood our vision of the Metal extreme.


11.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part off?
Scythe:
Kuismahc plays drums in Kalmah which is currently composing new material for the next album and they're doing their first gig in Norway this year at may in Karmøygeddon Festival (http://karmoygeddon.no/).

I have actually been ramping up a new international online collaboration of sorts with some really cool people, stylishly we're doing a kind of a Jazzy-Avantgarde-post-metal-
rock-thingie, a lot of Ved buens ende, Virus and Yurei influences with maybe a hint of Arcturus to accompany the weirdness, really excited to see how people receive that material. This project goes by the name of "Selcouth" and will be made public soon. Currently we have people participating from Finland, France, Spain and Russia.

Also I participated a little on another online collaboration called Hécatombe Humaine with a couple of songs, I think the release will be mosly ambient but I made a couple of metal songs, one in the vein of Cadaver - Necrosis in 280Bpm \,,/. This will be a more underground release.

Tero:
I also play bass in a band called Liverbox.
We are a bunch of old men, (I´m the youngest and I´m 34), playing rock´n´roll. Currently we are mixin our forthcoming Ep, playing gigs and planning the future of the band.

12.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Scythe:
Onwards, there's a lot of new songs already being composed for the next release and no drastic changes on the style anticipated, maybe even better songs \,,/

13.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Scythe: The biggest influence over the years is definitely the second wave norwegian black metal from late 90's, grew up on those albums and still listen to them on a regular basis. Currently really excited of the new Dodheimsgard album "A Umbra omega", the one sample song they've released "Aphelion void" is just fantastic piece of art. I try to discover new interesting bands all the time, recently discovered a lot of great French avantgarde metal bands like Spekt, Igorrr, Smohalla, Pryapisme, Stagnant waters and Deathspell omega. Also I've acquired the entire Adversum catalogue - only quality releases there like Yurei, Delirium bound, Alpha obscura, Manimalism etc. I actually made a list of my favourite 2014 releases so I'll share it here:

Bloodway - Sunstone voyager and the clandestine horizon EP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMb5Sf-TaiU

Deconstructing Sequence – Access Code EP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqgRaMx7co

Bölzer - Soma EP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qYVNcmZyLc

Thantifaxath - Sacred White Noise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w9TbulMd70

Execration - Morbid dimensions
https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Manimalism - Manimalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbmEtfDBNOI

Mayhem - Esoteric warfare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d7cr-zdm1Y

Kampfar - Djevelmakt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtifXWB3IQQ

Thy darkened shade - Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6pqbDMKBt4

Necrophagia - WhiteWorm Cathedral
http://necrophagia.bandcamp.com/album/whiteworm-cathedral

As light dies - TLA vol1.
http://aslightdies.bandcamp.com/track/nemesis

The Deathtrip - Deep drone master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ijl7crxqkg

Philm - Fire from the evening sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAoBuFewYMs

14.What are some of your non musical interests?
Scythe: I've been into Ashtanga yoga for a couple of years soon which balances the extreme metal side nicely.

15.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
It feels good to be back! \,,/

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Synkvervet Interview

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

Synkvervet started out as a one-man studio project by Ingemar in the fall of 2011.  Originally Synkvervet was supposed to be a pure instrumental project, but it didn’t take long before he realized that the project needed vocals. Not being much of a vocalist, he called in his friend and band colleague Truls. Together they created the mysterious, trollish and aggressive folk sound that is SYNKVERVET. Synkvervet's debut album (Vår Avmakt) was released in the winter of 2013. A few months later Truls and Ingemar started working on a new album. They decided to bring in a drummer and a guitar player. The decision fell on Rino and Espen. With the new sound that Ingemar created, it opened new doors to inspiration for Synkvervet. During the
recording of the new album, Christina and Niclas was invited as guest vocalists on a few tracks. Later they became permanent members of Synkvervet. The band now consists of six permanent members. And the new Synkvervet album "Trollspeil" was released in December 2014.

2.So far you have released 2 albums, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both of the recordings and also how do they differ from each other?

The first album was much more black metal inspired, while the second album is more melodic and atmospheric. Also adding two new vocalists on the second album contributed to changing the sound a bit.

3.Originally the band started out as an instrumental solo project, what was the decision behind adding in vocals and bringing in a full time line up?

Ingemar felt that the music needed another element, and the choice fell naturally on vocals. On the second album Ingemar and Truls decided to take the studio project to a possible live performance act. Therefor
they decided to bring in some new musicians.

4.The bands name and some of the lyric come from Old Norse Sagas, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in Nordic Paganism?

The name "Synkvervet" means illusion, and this describes both the music and the band. Hearing stories about folklore, norse mythology and fairytales is a normal part of growing up in Norway. And when we started
to make music, this was the natural path to take.

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

We started out as a studio project therefor we have not been able to play live. And since we just recently became a full band we only had a couple of months to rehearse.

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

We hope to do our first gig in the autumn 2015.

7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

We`we had some offers, but for now we are happy to be independent. But if the right deal comes along you never know.

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

The feedback has been amazing from both black and folk metal fans.

9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the bands members are a part off?

Greyzone and Blindfolded are currently playing gigs, PelleK are rehearsing, and Twisted Autumn Darkness are in studio making a new album.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

After working on Trollspeil, we think we found our sound. And that's is the sound we are going for in the future.

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

A mix of all kinds of genres. But we are striving to create our own sound.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

History, reading, gaming, cats and of course beer.

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

Thank you so much for reviewing our new album and taking interest in Synkvervet.

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Ovid's Withering/Scryers Of Ibis/Unique Leader Records/2015 CD Re-Issue Review

  Ovid's  Withering  are  a  band  from  Florida  that  plays  a  mixture  of  symphonic  black  metal,  brutal  death  metal  and  metalcore  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2013  album  "Scryers  Of  Ibis"  which  will  be  re-issued  in  March  by  Unique  Leader  Records.

  A  very  fast,  brutal  and  technical  sound  starts  off  the  album  along  with  a  mixture  of  black  metal screams  and  deep  death  metal  growls  before  adding  in  metalcore  breakdowns  and  symphonic  elements  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.

  During  the  faster  sections  you  can  hear  a  great  amount  of  blast  beats  being  utilized  and  the  solos  and  leads  the  band  uses  are  very  melodic  and  technical  sounding  and  some  of  the  tracks  also  bring  in  elements  of  djent  and  modern  prog  metal  and  some  of  the  songs  also  add  spoken  word  parts  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  along  with  the  symphonic  elements  getting  more  epic  at  times and  some  of  the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic  in  length  and  as  the  album  progresses  some  of  the  tracks  add  in  a  small  amount  of  clean  singing.

  Ovid's  Withering  takes  a  brutal  style  of  death  metal  and  mixes  it  with  symphonic  black  metal  and  metalcore  to  create  something  original  and  while  the  metalcore  elements  are  not  my  thing,  I  can  respect  the  band  for  doing  something  very  original  and  I  feel  they  are  very  good  at  what  they  do,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  Greek  Mythology.

  In  my  opinion  Ovid's  Withering  are  a  very  decent  sounding  mixture  of  symphonic  black  metal,  technical  death  metal  and  metalcore  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Oedipus  Complex"  "Acheron"  "The  God  Of  Shepherds  And  Flocks"  and  "Panikon  Diema".  7  out  of  10.

www.facebook.com/witheringsoulband

  

Synkvervet/Trollspeil/2014 Full Length Review

  Synkvervet  are  a  band  from  Norway  that  plays  a  mixture  of  symphonic  black  metal  and  pagan/folk  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2014  album  "Trollspeil".


  A  very  epic  and  neo-folk  synth  sound  starts  off  the  album  and  after  a  minute  the  music  starts  going  into  more  of  a  melodic  black  metal  direction  that  also  introduces  blast  beats  and  grim  yet  high  pitched  screams  to t he  recording  which  they  also  mix  in  with  symphonic  elements  along  with  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts.

  On  some  of  the  tracks  operatic  female  vocals  can  be  heard  while  some  of  the  sections  bring  in  a  few  seconds  of  death  metal  growls  at  times  and  you  can  also  hear  a  touch  of  modern  prog  metal  in  the  bands  musical  style  at  times  and  as  the  album  progresses  the  synths  start  bringing  in  more  of  a  haunting  atmosphere  and  also  start  adding  in  more  elements  of  folk  music  and  as  the  album  progresses  clean  singing  male  vocals  can  be  heard  on  some  of  the  songs  while  a  couple  of  later  tracks  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  spoken  word  parts  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Synkvervet  plays  a  style  of  symphonic  black  metal  that  brings  in  a  touch  of  pagan  and  folk  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sound s very  professional  for  being  a  self  released  recording  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  a  mixture  of  both  Norwegian  and  English  and  cover  Nordic  Paganism,  Mythology,  Folklore,  Nature  and  Mysticism.

  In  my  opinion  Synkvervet  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  symphonic  black  metal  and  pagan/folk  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Horns  of  Vengeance"  "Inner  Sanctum"  "Clearwater  Diamonds"  and  "Angelfall".  8  out  of  10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPoIxwbBNbA

  

Cruenta Lacrymis Interview

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

1-The band was founded in September 2012 by the guitarist Daniele, drummer Teo and bassist Erika. The initial idea was to create a similar product of Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, very important bands for Cruenta LaCrymis' influences.
Daniele and Teo produce the material in a short time - in the studio of the guitarist were mixed aggressive riffs and melodic idea, together with concept of symphonic and horror.
In this moment the band must take a voice that would give meaning for the project.
After a various selection finally Elena joined the band. Elena offers a more personal style for Cruenta LaCrymis, also writing stronger lyrics.

2.So far you have released a full length and a demo, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both of the recordings?

2-The sound wants to be dark,melodic, powerful and aggressive.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

3-text feed on violent and painful sensations, mental states of complex magma indefinite

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Cruenta Lacrymis'?

4-Cruenta LaCrymis is undefined words,inspired a work of Dario Argento, cult Italian horror director.Is a Latin language modified,it means “Tears of blood”.

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

5-Best live at Padova Metal Fest (August 2014), support to Nightrage (July 2014), support Frantic Amber (September 2014), support Necrodeath (January 2015), support to Dark Lunacy (February 2015).
The show wants to be visual and musical power, trying to involve the public!

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

6-We're planning a promo tour in Italy for "Sweetness and blasphemy", with the intention to perform in other countries!


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

7-7-The album has just been released, but it seems to have a good response!

8.Are any of the band members also involved with any other bands or musical projects these days?

8-Erika plays bass with Cellulite Star, punk rock female Italian band.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

9-We will try even more dark and violent sonority,trying to maintain modernity in the sound and composition

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

10-Cradle of filth,Dimmu Borgir,Arch Enemy,Moonspel,Dark Lunacy,Slayer .

11. Does Occultism play any role in your music?

11-Only a small part.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

12-12-Drink ,sex and rock’n roll !!!!!!

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

13-We thank those who are working for us with passion and all the fans who support us in Live and the We

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