Omrade/Edari/My Kingdom Music/2015 CD Review

  Omrade  are  a  band  from  Sweden  that  plays  an  avant  garde  form  of  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  album  "Edari"  which  will  be  released  in  April  by  My  Kingdom  Music.

  A  very  dark  atmospheric  and  ambient  sound  starts  off  the  album  and  a  few  seconds  later  clean  singing  vocals  are  added  onto  the  recording  along  with  a  small  amount  of  saxophones  and  after  a  few  minutes  black  metal  screams  become  a  huge  part  of  the  music  and  the  synths  also  get  more  symphonic  and  also  add  in  an  influence  on  classical  music.

  Elements  of  industrial  can  be  heard  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording  along  with some  traces  of  trip  hop  and  electronic  music  and  as  the  album  progresses  acoustic  guitars  can  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  some  of  the  tracks  along  with  spoken  word  parts  and  female  vocals  being  utilized  at  times  and  there  are  also  a  few  tracks  that  are  long  and epic  in  length  and  the  music  gets  more  progressive  halfway  through  the  recording.

  Omrade  creates  and  album  that  brings in  a  variety  of  many  different  musical  genres  from  black  metal,  avant  garde,  trip  hop,  electronica,  ambient,  industrial  and  post  rock  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  a  mixture  of  Swedish  and  English  and  cover  dark  and  psychotic  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Omrade  are  a  very  great  sounding  avant  garde/post  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Mostsogn"  "Satellite  And  Narrow"  and  "Friendly  herpes".  8  out  of  10.

http://youtu.be/-i5kIREyCKY

Vetten Aparat/Sydantalven Viha/Inverse Music/2015 Single Review

  Vetten  Aparat  are  a  band  from  Finland  that  plays  a  very  heavy  form  of  folk  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  single  "Sydantalven  Viha"  which  will  be  released  on  March  27th  by  Inverse  Music.

  Nature  sounds  start  off  the  song  before  adding  in  acoustic  guitars  and  synths  that  add  a  folk  music  feeling  to  the  music  and  a  few  seconds  alter  clean  singing  vocals  are  added  into  the  track  which  leads  up  to  the  song  going  into  a  heavier  direction  and  after  awhile  the  vocals  start  to  get  aggressive  and  add  in  element s of  death  and  black  metal  and  melodic  guitar  leads  are  added  into  the  music  along  with  some  back  up  gang  shouts,  and  after  the  acoustic  parts  make  their  return  the  song  starts  utilizing  some  symphonic  elements.

  Vetten  Aparat  plays  a  style  of  folk  metal  that  is  very  heavy  and  melodic  and  also  adds  in  a  touch  of  Nordic  black  metal  and  death  metal,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  are  written  in  Finnish  and  cover  foklore  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Vetten  Apaarat  are  a  very  great  sounding  folk  metal  band  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  single.  8  out  of  10.

https://www.facebook.com/vettenaparat

http://www.vettenaparat.com/  

Sulphur Aeon/Gateway To The Antisphere/Van Records/Imperium Productions/2015 CD Review

  Sulphur  Aeon  are  a  band  from  Germany  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  plays  a  very  melodic  form  of  blackened  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  album  "Gateway  To  The  Antisphere"  which  will  be  released  in  April  as  a  joint  effort  between  Van  Records  and  Imperium  Productions.

  Rain  and  ritualistic  spoken  word  parts  start  off  the  album  along  with  some  synths  and  a  few  seconds  alter  melodic  chants  and  heavy  guitars  are  added  into  the  music  and  after  the  intro  more  melodies  are  added  into  the  music  along  with  some  death  metal  growls  and  a  small  amount  of  black  metal  screams.

  Blast  beats  can  be  heard  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording  along  with  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  when  solos  and  leads a re  used  they  are  very  dark,  melodic  and  technical  sounding  and  the  songs  also  mix  in  the  atmospheric  elements  in  with  the  heavier  and  melodic  parts  of  their  musical  style.

  At  times  the  music  goes  fro  a  brutal  style  of  death  metal  which  they  also  mix  in  with  some  atmospheric  and  melodic  black  metal  influences  and  the  sound  effects  from  the  intro  also  make  a  return  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  the  songs  also  display  a  great  amount  of  talent  and  skill  throughout  the  recording  and  they  also  close  the  album  with  a  very  atmospheric  outro.

  Sulphur  Aeon  creates  another  album  that  is  in  the  blackened  death  metal  direction  and  mixes  brutality  and   melody  with  atmospheric  elements  and  epic  structures  to  create  an  album  that  will  show  them  getting  known  on  a  higher  level,  the  production  sound s very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  the  writings  of  H.P  Lovecraft  and  Darkness.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Sulphur  Aeon  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  this  band,  you  should  enjoy  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Devotion  To  The  Cosmic  Chaos"  "Abysshex"  "Seventy  Steps"  and  "Into  the  Courts  Of  Azathoth".  8/5  out  of  10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcaWMa23C4M&feature=youtu.be

Revealing The Conscience/Time Will Reveal/WormHoleDeath Records/2015 CD Review

  Revealing  The  Conscience  are  a  band  from  Slovakia  that  plays  a  melodic  mixture  of  power,  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  album  "Time  Will  Reveal"  which  was  released  by  WormHoleDeath  Records.

A  very  symphonic  sound  starts  off  the  album  bringing  in  a  classical  music  feeling  and  after  the  intro  melodic  progressive  metal  guitar  leads  start  becoming  a  huge  part  of  the  recording  while  also  keeping  around  the  symphonic  elements  and  after  awhile  death  metal  growls  and  black  metal  screams  are  used  on  a  regular  basis.

  You  can  hear  a  great  amount  of  melody  in  the  guitar  riffing  at  times  while  the  power  metal  influence  is  mixed  in  with  the  musical  instruments  and  the  vocals  stick  to  a  more  aggressive  style  and  as  the  album  progresses  the  songs  start  bringing  in  a  great  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  a  decent  amount  of  blast  beats  and  one  of  the  later  tracks  also  brings  in  a  brief  use  of  clean  playing  before  return  back  to  a  heavier  direction  while  a  small  amount  of  spoken  word  parts  can  be  heard.

  Revealing  The  Conscience  takes  both  black  and  death  metal  and  combines  them  together  with  symphonic  metal  and  the  melody  of  power  metal  to  create  a  sound  of  their  own,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  metaphysical  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Revealing  The  Conscience  are  a  very  great  sounding  melodic  and  symphonic  mixture  of  black,  death  and  power  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Hellbinder"  "Struggling  Within"  "Farewell"  and  "God  And  Satan".  8  out  of  10.

https://www.facebook.com/revealthecon
http://www.youtube.com/revthecon  

  

Augurs/Deathgrave/Sentinent Ruin Laboratories/2015 Split 7 Inch Review

  This  is  a  review  of  a  split  7  inch  between  Oakland,  California's  Augurs  and  Deathgrave  which  will  be  released  by  Sentinent  Ruin  Laboratories  on  March  17,  2015  and  we  will  start  off  the  review  with  Augurs  a  band  that  plays  a  mixture  of  black  metal,  doom  and  crust.

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  off  with  a  very  dark  and  heavy  sound  that  starts  to  speed  up  a  few  seconds  later  and  bring s in  elements  of  crust,  and  black  metal  screams  along  with  a  decent  amount  of  blast  beats  and  all  of  the  musical  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  you  can  also  hear  a  small  amount  of  doom  and  post  metal  in  the  bands  musical  style  as  well  as  some  deep  growls,  the  production  sounds  very  dark  and  heavy  while  the  lyrics  cover  depressive  themes and  towards  the  end  the  music  gets  melodic  and  also  incorporates  a  brief  guitar  lead.

  In  my  opinion  Augurs  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  black  metal,  doom  and  crust  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genre,  you  should  check  out  this  band.

  Next  up  is  Deathgrave  a  band  that  plays  a  brutal  mixture  of  power  violence,  crust  and  grind.

  Their  side  of  the  split  starts  out  with  a  very  heavy  guitar  sound  and  high  pitched  screams  before  speeding  up and  adding  in  blast  beats  that  also  take  their  music  into  more  of  a  brutal  grindcore  direction  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  along  with  a  small  amount  of  growls  being  added  onto  later  songs  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  violent  and  hateful  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Deathgrave  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  grindcore,  crust  and  power  violence  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACK  "Hugged  In  Half".

  In  conclusion  I  feel  this  is  a  very  great  sounding  split  and  I  would  recommend  it  to  fans  of  black  metal,  doom,  grind,  power  violence  and  crust.  8  out  of  10.

https://augurs.bandcamp.com
https://deathgrave.bandcamp.com

    

Northland Interview

Northland / interview answers by POL LEMAIRE (keyboards) and PAU MURILLO (singer-guitars) / A Different Shade Of Black Metal / 2015

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
Well, as you can imagine we've been very busy preparing everything related with the release and promotion of Downfall & Rebirth. We've been working hard on promoting it through the world, and also have been looking for gigs so as to spread our music around. It's been really nice to finally release the album after almost 3 years of hard work (the recordings started in March 2012), so we are really happy!

2.Recently you have released a new album, 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?

The musical sound from the new album is definitely more diverse. We've taken more time for composing the songs, so everything sounds more refined and filled with details. Of course we love our first album, but since we've matured a lot in the last 5 years, so has done our music. We hope people will enjoy the different touches we have given to our new music!

3.This is the first album to be released in 5 years, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time frame?

Well, during these 5 years we’ve been playing around Europe (festivals and some tours), which has been a really great experience. There have been as well some line-up changes, but finally we’ve managed to reach stability. Our drummer Jose also had to endure a hard recovery from a bike accident, which took him 8 months to get recovered. Hopefully he’s so strong and if fine again!

Of course, we've also been busy composing and recording for half of the five years, but we mainly got focused on playing anywhere and spreading our music.

4.The lyrics cover some Pagan topics, how would you describe your views on Paganism?
Yes, that's right! We do inspire our lyrics on some pagan cultures but we also add a little bit of fantasy so that we don't follow a particular pagan religion or way of thinking. We create our own pagan way of understanding the universe. We might use some shades of the Viking and Celtic culture, but we are not saying "Hey, we are Vikings or Celts". We try to give a personal point of view and we want the listener to think about it.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Northland'?
Well, it is indeed a quite strange and funny story. The origin of the name takes place in 2004, when Pau Murillo (singer and guitars), along with some friends from the high school, decided to create a band. One day, one of those friends proposed to call the band "Northwind". All of them liked that name, but after investigating a little bit they realised there was already a band called like this, so they decided to turn the name into Northland. That's 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?
We always enjoy any show we play in! We're always finding incredible people anywhere we go, and this is something that we enjoy so much. But to name some, the best shows might be the ones at Ragnarök Festival, Vagos Open Air, Wave Gotik Treffen... We also enjoyed a lot the Black Trolls Over Europe Tour we did in 2010, we hope we can do an European tour like that soon!
Regarding our stage performance, over time we've got more experience, so we can focus more on the contact with the audience. We've always been told that we have a good live performance, and we want to keep this so people can enjoy each and every gig we perform in!

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
Well, we have plans for performing around Spain (and Portugal) during this spring (April, May and June). The tour will consist of around 10-15 gigs, and we will play in many cities we haven't played in before, so we are excited about this! We hope we'll have good feedback from these places, and we are promoting the tour so as many people as possible can come. Besides, we are also planning some international tours for the second half of the year, but we still have details to manage before we can announce it.
Of course, we are eager to play in as many places as possible, since we wish to bring our music to all the people around the globe!

8.The new album was self released but the band has been signed to a label before, are you open to working with another record label again in the future?

Of course! We don't discard any possibility. We had some problems with our previous label, so in the end we thought the most practical way to release our second album was self releasing it. If we got a nice proposal in the future, we'd be glad to work with another label, so it's just a matter of time.

9.On a worldwide level, how has the feedback been to your newer music by fans of viking, pagan, folk, and death metal?

Overall, the reception of our new album has been pretty good. We've been working hard on the promotion of the album, so it can reach as many metal fans as possible, and the feedback we are receiving by now is positive. We usually read the comments from Youtube and the social media, and we are happy to see that many people like Downfall And Rebirth. We are also receiving positive feedback from the magazines, fanzines, blogs, and other media that have reviewed our new album. We hope our music can be enjoyed as many people as possible!

10.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
Some members are really busy with their other musical projects. For example, Vic (the bassist) is working hard with his band Moonloop, because they are recording their new studio album. Jose (the drummer) is also busy with his band Aggression, and will also record a new album soon, as well a perform in some gigs. Some of the other members play in other bands as well.

11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
First of all, after the long time it has taken to finish our second studio album, we will get focused on playing live in as many places as possible. We want to spread our music around the entire world, know new bands and people, get more experience... We still don't know where will our music head into in the future, but we are sure it will get better, because all the experience we get on our lives (both musically and non-musically talking) is something that we can transfer to our music. We think this is something that makes music richer, and will of course be important when we decide to record our third album.

12.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?

We've been listening to a lot of new stuff. The older you get the more open-minded you become and we are 6 people in the band, so imagine the wide range of music styles we listen to. To resume, I would say that we mainly listen to folk music such as the masters Luar na Lubre, Assambly Point and so on. We also love to listen to epic music: Two steps from hell. Immediate music and a lot of modern composers. That's more or less where we get our inspiration from nowadays, a part from thousands of bands that we might listen to particularly.

13.What are some of your non musical interests?

All of us have different interests.

For example, Pol (keyboard player) likes Japanese culture and speaks Japanese, and also likes hiking in the mountains and playing videogames. Vic (Bass player loves Photography, Sound engineering, board games, Magic the Gathering, Sociology, Travelling, etc. Pau Murillo (Lead vocals and guitar) also loves Videogames, sports, traveling and so on! We all have different interests but of course some common ones!


14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We want to thank you for helping us promote our music around the world by giving us the chance to share our thoughts we all the A different Shade of Black Metal community. To all the people reading this interview, we hope you enjoy our music and come to our gig whenever we play in your country!

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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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