ADifferentShadeOfBlackMetalZine

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Omega Point/Isolation/2018 Full Length Review

Omega Point are a band from Germany that plays a very progressive and melodic form of black metal and this is a review of their self released 2018 album "Isolation".

Atmospheric sounding synths start off the album and also gives the music a symphonic feeling at times before going into a very fast and melodic musical direction which also uses a great amount of blast beats while the vocals are mostly blackened metal screams that also have a touch of death metal to them.

Clean singing can also be heard at times while the solos and leads are done in a very melodic style along with the songs also bringing in a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts which also add in a decent amount of tremolo picking as well as all of the musical instruments having a very powerful sound to them, when clean playing is utilized it gives the music more of a progressive feeling and spoken word parts are also used briefly and some of the tracks are very long and epic in length.

Omega Point plays a style of black metal that is very melodic and progressive sounding along with some symphonic and death metal elements, the production sounds very professional for being a self released recording while the lyrics cover dark themes.

In my opinion Omega Point are a very great sounding melodic and progressive black metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "The Last Light" "Eye Of The Storm" and "Isolation". 8 out of 10.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Glacial Tomb/Self Titled/Gilead Media/2018 Full Length Review

Glacial Tomb are a band from Denver, Colorado that plays a mixture of black, death and sludge metal and this is a review of their self released 2018 album which will be released on October 26th by Gilead Media.

A very fast and brutal sound starts off the album along with a great amount of blast beats while the vocals bring in a mixture of black metal screams and death metal growls as well as some angry shouts. along with the riffs also adding in a decent amount of dark sounding melodies and the slower sections of the songs bring in elements of sludge.

Throughout the recording you can also hear a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts while the music also has its technical and dissonant moments along with the music also capturing the raw energy of punk rock at times and all of the musical instruments have a very powerful sound to them, w hen guitar leads are utilized they are done in a very dark death metal style and the music always remains very heavy and brutal.

Glacial Tomb plays a musical style that takes dissonant black metal, brutal death metal and sludge and mixes them together to create a sound of their own, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover existential dread, misanthropy and failure themes.

In my opinion Glacial Tomb are a very great sounding mixture of black, death and sludge metal and if you are a fan of those musical genres, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Monolithos" "Of Flesh And Worship" and "Shackled to The Burning Earth". 8 out of 10.

Bandcamp: https://glacialtomb.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glacialtomb
Web: https://glacialtomb.com

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Myopic/Self Titled/Grimoire Records/2018 CD Review

Myopic are a band from Maryland that plays a progressive mixture of post, black, sludge and doom metal and this is a review of their self released 2018 album which will be released in November by Grimoire Records.

A very dark sounding intro starts off the album before going into a heavier direction while the faster sections of the songs also bring in a great amount of blast beats along with the vocals also bringing in a great amount of black metal screams as well as all of the musical instruments having a very powerful sound to them.

A great amount of post metal elements can be heard quite a bit throughout the recording while clean vocals are also added into some parts of the music along with the slower sections of the songs bringing in elements of sludge and doom metal as well as most of the tracks being very long and epic in length.

When guitar solos and leads are utilized they are done in a very melodic style while clean playing can also be heard in certain sections of the recording and also gives the songs more of a progressive feeling along with the music also having its experimental moments at times as well as the fast riffs also bringing in a decent amount of tremolo picking.

Myopic plays a musical style that takes post black, progressive, sludge and doom metal and mixes them together to create a sound of their own, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover dark and philosophical themes.

In my opinion Myopic are a very great sounding progressive mixture of black, post, sludge and doom metal and if you are a fan of those musical genres, you should check out this band. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Earth's Mantle" "In Exile" and "Resting Place". 8 out of 10.

https://myopicdc.com

https://www.facebook.com/MyopicBand

Friday, October 12, 2018

Misanthropic Aggression Interview

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

This is the latest step in my lifetime of music creation. I am currently 35 years old and this is the seventh band I've written original music and recorded with. People who knew me before this band knew me as a drummer. I only moved to bass and vocals as a way to push myself and after meeting Tyler, who is only 20 years old and drumming at a way higher caliber than I was at his age. When Chris first decided to commit to the band I was playing drums and he was on guitar. Our two song demo from 2017 only features he and I. Chris engineers everything in our practice room, and on that recording I played bass, drums and did the vocals. Chris played guitar and engineered the sessions. When Tyler joined we decided to write an EP and push hard for Boris Records to release it. Chris works for the label, my old band Spewtilator had two releases on BR, and it just seemed like a natural DiY / Independent move. So we worked very hard for seven months on the material and spent another two months tracking it. Now here we are.

2.Recently you have released an ep, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on this recording?

We established a few major ground rules. C tuning so everything we had would be low and heavy. Always black metal shrieks or death metal lows for vocals. Intensity and energy in everything. Other than that there are no rules on metal sub genres. We try to keep it black and I consider us a black metal band. We just add elements of thrash, death, doom and punk. The 80's in Europe were extremely fascinating to me. Between Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Venom, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Sodom, Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Amebix etc. the major bases of Traditional Heavy Metal, First Wave Black Metal and Grind / Crust Punk are all covered.

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

Social unrest, depression, anger, mental illness. I feel like we're living in an age where everyone feels extremely tribalistic and there's a lot of bad attitudes and shitty people who love to mistreat others. I just found myself getting so fucking pissed off every day I needed to express my frustration and rage. I don't feel like I'm alone in feeling fed up, forgotten about, and just generally pissed most of the time. A lot of times my lyrics come from a first person perspective but I'm not writing from my point of view, I'm writing from the point of view of that stupid prick in traffic that just cut you off and gave YOU the finger or the asshole holding up the line on purpose getting lottery when they can tell people are in a hurry. It's the age of anonymous trolling and everyone hates everyone who isn't exactly like them.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Misanthropic Aggression'?

The rage I feel at hating man kind so much, and the struggle I feel on a daily basis not to assault people and be locked in a cage.

5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?

I like guns, I have a few guns, but let's be honest America is obsessed with them. It's a man sacrificed to the alter of the gun. It was drawn by Warhead Art out of Eastern Europe. He caught my eye from my old friend Kael from the so-cal war metal band Wearg, Cavemancult from Miami and Berator from Chicago (Richard and Adam are from my hometown and we go back over a decade) and I love his style. he was nice enough to do a commission piece for us and I asked him to move away from his traditional medieval style. It came out really well. Sam Leyja (Boris Owner and founder) did the layout and I'm really pleased with how it came out.

6.Originally the band was a solo project, what was the decision behind forming a full line up?

I feel like I'll be playing music until the day I die, and as a drummer you always seem to get chewed up and spit out. Always seem to be getting used to make someone else's dream a reality, but at some point things don't work out and you're no longer in the band that wouldn't have been established without you, and you have very little to show for it. I finally decided I would start my own band no one could ever take away. I hope Chris and Tyler never stop playing with me but if they did I would keep the band going. It was like once I freed myself of the burden of being a team player and decided to be selfish I meet this extremely healthy group with Chris and Tyler and don't have to be selfish. It's working out really well.

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

Probably our Athens, Ga debut with Cloak (more old friends Scott and I go back a decade) it was a huge crowd and a room full of people who have never seen us. We go for intensity and energy live. I go out of my way to head bang and thrash. Black metal is war and even though we aren't a traditional bm band I intended to try to manifest violence, even if it's only against my own body. We have only played 4 shows so far but that is my favorite.

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

Yes we are open to offers. We are close to announcing a Charlotte show and we are networking to try to get a 9 day run up to NYC and Philly next year. We plan to keep this band active as long as we can.

9.On the ep you had also done an S.S.D cover, what was the decision behind doing your own version of one of their songs?

I love a lot of 80's hardcore, and to me even though that band isn't metal at all, they personified violence and rage on that song. The lyrics feel like something I would write. So at practice one day we were fucking around and tried it in C standard and added a blast beat to the chorus. It sounded violent as fuck so we went for it.

10.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of underground metal?

I guess like anything some people love us and some think we suck. The punk sound of our music throws a lot of elite black metal guys for a loop. If a dbeat is good enough for Celtic Frost it's good enough for me. If you wanna see me be stupid give me a bottle of whiskey and put on Morbid Tales. I don't think my DNA can allow me to NOT head bang and start single man moshing when Into Crypts of Rays comes on.

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

Now that the EP is done we are not slowing down. I'm already into writing a second song, and Chris and Tyler both have ideas too. We're going to let Inability To Cope run it's course for at least a year, and play as many shows in as many cities as possible. We'll probably wait until Boris has enough money for us to do a legit 12" to record again though. We are open to split or comp offers though and would be interested in recording for them if any offers came in. Musically we plan to progress. we're doing what we're doing now but there's nothing to say we won't go more grim in the future. We also love a lot of Goregrind like Impetigo and Lord Gore / Frightmare / Bloodfreak those Portland guys kill it. So really who knows. No rules, as long as it's heavy as fuck and fast. No bullshit vocals either.

12.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?

Biggest influence on me is Darkthrone. People love to take shots at them because they're the face of black metal, but they have the most dynamic and prolific discography of pretty much anyone. From Soulside Journey to Arctic Thunder those guys just write and do what they want, no matter who thinks or says what. Also Peter Steele and Carnivore / Type O Negative, his sense of black humor was the best. I identify strongly with him. Also Celtic Frost, their first two albums are amazing but Monotheist is one of the most crushing and depressing albums I had ever heard. I guess I wanted this band to be dynamic and not afraid to be unconventional. As much as I love Judas Iscariot I don't guess I would ever want to play "grim" black metal. Not talking any shit at all about the pure black metal bands. I'm kinda rambling now but also Demoncy. Robert is from my hometown and we have a lot of mutual friends, some how I had never seen them live until last year. They played Mass Destruction Metal Fest and they were so fucking heavy. The old shitty recordings they have are great, but live they sounded louder and heavier than a lot of doom bands I've seen. Really inspiring.

13.What are some of your non musical interests?

I have an almost 5 year old son and wife so a lot of time with them. I'm a PC gaming nerd. You can catch me playing video games a lot more than I should admit. Our song Respite is about how I'm anti social and I don't wanna do anything but sit at home in my basement.

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

Thank you very much for taking to time to check out our stuff and reach out to us. The support is strongly appreciated. - Jake

https://www.facebook.com/MisanthropicAggression/

Monday, October 8, 2018

Night Crowned/Humanity Will Echo Out/Black Lion Records/2018 EP Review

Night Crowned are a band from Sweden that plays a melodic mixture of black and death metal and this is a review of their 2018 ep "Humanity Will Echo Out" which will be released in November by black Lion Records.

A very fast and melodic sound starts off the ep along with a great amount of blast beats while the vocals bring in a mixture of death metal growls and black metal screams as well as all of the musical instruments having a very powerful sound to them and the solos and leads are done in a very melodic style.

Throughout the recording you can also hear a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts while synths can also be heard at times along with the music being very heavily rooted in the Swedish styles of black and death metal as well as the riffs also adding in a great amount of dark sounding melodies and whispered vocals can also be heard briefly.

Night Crowned plays a musical style that takes the melodic styles of Swedish black and death metal and mixes them together to create a sound of their own, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover dark themes.

In my opinion Night Crowned 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 TRACK "Nocturnal Pulse'. 8 out of 10.

https://mailchi.mp/e6998aced10c/nightcrowned-single

The Crown/Eternal Death/Dissoance Productions/3028 CD Re-Issue Review

This is a review of another recording from Sweden's The Crown which continues their melodic mixture of black, death and thrash metal and the album was originally released in 1997 and called "Eternal Death" with the re-issue coming out on October 19, 2018 by Dissoance Productions.

Acoustic guitar playing starts off the album before going into more of a heavier direction while the faster sections of the songs also bring in a great amount of tremolo picking and blast beats while the solos and leads are done in a very melodic style as well as the vocals being mostly black metal screams and death metal growls are also used at times.

All of the musical instruments on the recording have a very powerful sound to them while spoken word samples can also be heard briefly along with the riffs also mixing in elements of thrash and speed metal as well as a couple of the tracks being very long and epic in length and the riffing also brings in a decent amount of melody and as the album progresses acoustic guitars also make a brief return.

On this recording The Crown remained true to their melodic mixture of black, death and thrash metal, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover death, darkness, Satanism and anti religion themes.

In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from The Crown and if you are a fan of melodic black, death and thrash metal, you should check out this re-release. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Beautiful Evil Soul" "The Serpent Garden" "Kill The Priest" and "Death Of God". 8 out of 10.

The Crown/The Burning/Dissonance Productions/2018 CD Re-Issue Review

The Crown are a band from Sweden that has been featured before in this zine and on this recording played a melodic mixture of black, death and thrash metal and this is a review of their 1995 album "The Burning" which will be re-issued on October 19th, 2018.

War and spoken word samples start off the album before going into more of a heavier direction while the riffs also mix in a great amount of thrash elements along with the solos being done in a very melodic style as well as the vocals being mostly black metal screams and death metal growls are also used at times.

When the music speeds up a great amount of tremolo picking and blast beats can be heard while all of the musical instruments have a very powerful sound to them along with the riffs also bringing in some melody at times and as the album progresses a brief use of synths and clean playing can also be heard as well as the 2 closing tracks being long and epic in length.

On this recording The Crown took the melodic style of black and death metal and mixed them with thrash metal to create a sound of their own, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover death, darkness of anti religion themes along with a couple of songs being based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and Clive Barker.

In my opinion this was a very great sounding recording from The Crown and if you are a fan of melodic black, death and thrash metal, you should check out this re-issue. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Of Good And Evil" "The Lord Of The Rings" "Neverending Dream" and "Forget The Light". 8 out of 10.