Gam - Alt Hans Væsen (2023) Review

 

Black metal from Denmark.

 

Album out in 2023 through Den Ottende Kunst.

 

From the Rites of Pestilence Y.T. channel:

Gam's fiery debut full-length, arriving oen year after their first demo, "Hvisken fra Skyggernes Vrå".

Despite the greatness of their demo, "Alt Hans Væsen" is truly a triumph and step up from their previous work, indeed and "escalation on all fronts", this album takes on the old school approach of their previous record, reminiscing to me with bands like Helwetti or early DsO, but adds more elements and is definitely heightened by songwriting prowess.

A tremendous hymn of pagan fury and proudful heritage, Gam honors their ancestry through a no-fringes delivery of pure old school BM sound, definitely with some of the more Punk-ish, galloping elements of their compatriots in Skinliv and the Korpsand circle however. The Black Metal majesty is only interrupted by beautiful Folk passages, but indeed its musicianship is uncanny on all fronts, with the guitarwork remaining ever engaging and powerful, the drums having an absolutely barbaric but spot-on performance, and the vocals especially delivering with full fury on moments of unabashed assault, as well as might and epicness in moments grandeur.

Definitely one of the best old school Black Metal records to come out this year, which should not come as a surprise, having been released on tape through the excellent Den Ottende Kunst.

The A.C. report:

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Music: 3.5
Production: 3
Vocals: 3.5
Text: 3
Cover art: 3.5
Originality: 3.5
Instrumentation: 3.5
Atmosphere: 3.5
Flow & cohesion: 3
Impact: 3
Replayability: 3.5
Innovation: 3

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Overall: 3.3 out of 5 [Good / Great]

Owls Woods Graves - Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician (2022) Review

Band: Owls Woods Graves
Country: Poland
Album: Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician
Label: Malignant Voices
Website: Facebook

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Punk and black metal are often fused together, often from underground bands with battered production and short duration releases in their ballpark. From my perception, the two genres part ways on a first level the cleaner the sound gets, but black metal has always had punk elements even if its most basic forms, while the same doesn't hold vice versa. Owls Woods Graves' debut Citizenship of the Abyss, released in 2019, was a tango between these two genres with rather distinct changes from one another throughout the album, co-existing but not mixing into one solution, and it was a banger. They were not afraid to to employ some tremolo picking, nice clean vocals, typical punk lines, and all in all, biting and energetic tracks with nice transitions.

Another notable point to mention is the choice of aesthetics, which uses fantastically drawn black and white designs (courtesy of Robert A. von Ritter), with typical Old English inspired fonts on white worn out frames for the album title and band name. Now, again I sense this is like a combination of the old school, DIY black metal / punk approach for text on a cover, combined with a well-made and catered design instead, e.g. of an out of sorts photo collage. It was like that for their debut, and it's the same with Owls Woods Graves' second installment, Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician. These two covers alone can make me buy the albums in physical format just for their grimy beauty and it was certainly a good sign when I saw the news of a new Owls Woods Graves release, a band that is unlikely to show signs of divergence because they don't really have to compromise their sound for anyone.

Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician has a distinct difference compared to its predecessor, even though it's not such a surprising turnaround. M., frontman of compatriots Mgła, is now handling the bass and some vocals in Owls Woods Graves, along with already existing members E.V.T. and The Fall, and once again the record has been recorded / mixed / mastered with the help of Mgła, as they are all related to and around of a common suspect label like Malignant Voices. Once listening to it, one can definitely identify M.'s touches to the vocal work of Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician, which has now taken a slight turn towards black metal more than the punkish debut. Nevertheless, both elements are present and vibrant in this album.

Immediate nodding begins after a few distressed second introduction of the first track "The Entity", which hits hard and already shows the band playing slightly heavier than in Citizenship of the Abyss. Atmosphere and riffs are filthy, the sound is pleasant and it's an excellent opener to set the engine working for the band, which had me childishly celebrating about what I'm about to listen just from the first seconds of Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician. The album proves to have a marvelous flow between its tracks, which contain several nice twists and turns around the main genre structures that we would expect, and that's what makes it more interesting for me than the average black punk album I come across today. Much like in the movies, it's often anticlimactic to be able to predict a whole record by not even listening to it.

Distinct punk patterns emerge in pieces like "Bats in the Belfry", "Return of Satan", and "Antichristian Hooligan", which also feature chanting chorus singing that has been prominent in the genre since its beginnings. From these tracks, I thought "Antichristian Hooligan" to be the least compelling for me, but "Return of Satan" is pretty heavy and not limited solely to punk in its content. Owls Woods Graves now have song numbers in the mother tongue as well, with "Idzie Diabeł" (=here comes the devil) seeing the band playing more in middle-slow paced tempos and the final "Zobaczysz" (=you will see) giving a a dismal closure to the record.

Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician is not limited there. One of the most exciting moments in the album is the short but fierce "Rabies", a track straight from a war metal course book, which is also accurately placed third and makes an excellent case after the first two songs. And then, the black metal flavors are a bit scattered throughout the whole work, yet at "Obscure Monastery" and "At the Crossroads", melodic guitar lines would strongly remind of other current black metal bands of the Polish scene. Vocals and bass sound amazing in Secret Spies of the Horned Patrician, yet I would have preferred slightly more engaging drumming in the less cogent moments of the record, but that's not that much of a big issue in the end.

Owls Woods Graves pick up a genre combination that can be tormented with stagnation from its very definition, and manages to make an album that is a hell of a listen, and maybe even better than their previous work. I think I prefer some aspects of the debut more, like the textual work, but I'm glad they continue with the same cover art philosophy, and compose tracks that are not purely punk, not purely black metal, but something in between with a distinct touch of the musicians involved and the surprise egg that was "Rabies" for me. I could listen to a whole Owls Woods Graves release with tracks like that. All in all, listen to Secret Spies of the Patrician today.

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Release date: January 25th, 2022

Tracklist:

1. The Entity

2. Return of Satan

3. Rabies

4. Obscure Monastery

5. Idzie Diabeł

6. Bats in the Belfry

7. Antichristian Hooligan

8. At the Crossroads

9. Zobaczysz

Listen:

Youtube | Bandcamp

Young and in the Way - Ride off and Die (2020) Review

Needless to say, it is a big and unexpected turn to see a new album by Young and in the Way, minimally promoted, splashing in the world out of nothing. After the burning incidents that rose to the surface a couple of years ago, I believed this band was put to rest for good. And even though they have now a new full length album, fans should not trust in a full return as it is stated by the band that this is "the final album by The True Enemy". Entitled Ride off and Die, it is an appropriate swan song for a band like that, while the obvious Darkthrone reference stands out (they even have a song named "R.O.A.D." here). 

It almost feels like not a day has passed since When Life Comes to Death, except for the fact that the band has now exposed its core and stripped the music down to the bare necessities. The titles and lyrics, angry and straightforward, tell the tale of the wounded beast in punkish filthy fashion, with the hard-hitting compositions being exactly what Young and in the Way does best: pompous beats, harsh screams, cutting guitars and abundant feelings of hostility.

If you've heard of them before, at times it will feel like you've heard this before. The techniques are all the same, yet Ride off and Die is one hell of an enjoyable record because there is hardly any misstep. The band has channeled all its rage from the last few years into one record that might seem simple but isn't easy to achieve, and the listener will definitely feel how sincerely pissed they are with everything. I remember liking their previous album but this, more direct in its nature, fits wonderfully as the album to completely describe what this band is about.

Not a single track is to be skipped (interesting background synths in "Endless Night", plenty of energy in the riffs of "Suffering Dawn", "There is No God, Only Me" and "Ready to Explode", "R.O.A.D." is a two minute Young and In the Way anthem) but most of a note must be left for the last one "You Can't Kill Me". Seven minutes (not as long as other closing tracks they have done), the middle paced passages with the clean vocals towards the end, as well as the final solos / screams, are a highlight for the record and the band. 

Let's see if this will get any coverage from zines around, yet I wouldn't bet my money on that. Ride off and Die sees off Young and in the Way in such manner that there needs to be no more activity from them. The band probably doesn't care anymore, they're throwing this out there and suggesting its title as the way to deal with it, and as the last lyric goes, "you can't kill what's fucking dead" is the take home message for us.

Turbonegro - Scandinavian Leather

Turbonegro (Norway)

Scandinavian Leather (2003)

Burning Heart Records (Sweden) | Epitaph Records (US)

After all this time, I'm returning to posts about shit I buy and it's not all too much lately. I've always wanted to look more into Turbonegro albums because it's a band that has been suggested many times and they seem to be liked by metalheads quite much. I found Scandinavian Leather in a second hand store for a really cheap price, mostly among totally random numbers there, but it was the discovery that made me buy it in the end. I don't know much about them and a track featured here, "Train of Flesh", is weirdly the first I heard by Turbonegro ever. Even though there's lots of "ooOOOoo" for my taste, some tracks are catchy and well written. From what I have heard so far, it's only specific tracks by the band I dig.

Favorite tracks: Gimme Somme, Train of Flesh, F**k the World (F.T.W.)

Listen

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

Origin: Sweden

Genre: Hardcore Punk

1998, Burning Heart Records

Track list:

1. Worms of the Sense / Faculties of the Skull

2. Liberation Frequency

3. The Deadly Rhythm

4. Summerholiday Vs. Punkroutine

5. Bruitist Pome #5

6. New Noise

7. The Refused Party Program

8. Protest Song '68

9. Refused Are Fuckin' Dead

10. The Shape of Punk to Come

11. Tannhäuser / Derivè

12. The Apollo Programme Was A Hoax

Thank you.

Voidhanger - Working Class Misanthropy (2013) Review

 Album | Working Class Misanthropy
Country | Poland
Genre | Black / Punk / Thrash Metal
Label | Pagan Records

Voidhanger hail from Poland and they count three releases and two full length albums already, which is a fair amount for a band that has formed in 2010. The band seems well tight already and they have been tickling the attention of the scene since their first Wrathprayers, which was a notable debut by all means. With a post modern title like Working Class Misanthropy, the new record has come to stay and it marks an imposing message for all the fans of black / death / thrash metal. It contains eight songs and thirty three minutes of music in total.

The band dodges the typical concepts of extreme metal in their new record, which isn't totally anti-religious lyrically. Instead, they display their own shaped form of urban hatred, which is a nice break from all the same, all the time. The blend of musical elements they play is also quite personal, as you can hear all kinds of groovy, edgy and heavy melodies throughout the album. I don't know if there is a reference to Darkthrone's "I Am the Working Class" at all, but listening to this reminded me a bit of them, especially in the second and self-titled track. "A Song for Lennon" is also an unusual title for a black / death metal band, even though the actual music isn't as soft as it sounds.

The musicianship is fairly solid and there is an obvious variety of sounds in the album. I really liked the shouting vocals of Warcrimer, which are raw and hurtful, while the rest of the instruments are also great. Priest controls the drums quite good and throws a couple of tricks in there (there is a ride in a couple of lines), as well as the standard playing at various black / thrash / punk moments like "Uniesienie". The guitar work is attractive and it derives from various metal subcategories combined, both old school and state of the art (like the two phrase samples in the first and last song).

In general, Working Class Misantropy is a fast paced record, containing all kinds of headbanging moments. Voidhanger continue their steady and solid way with this energetic and quite interesting offering, which should help in building a fanbase. They have already opened for acts like Inquisition and Nunslaughter, it's a band to look out for in the future.

DAMAGE: 8/10

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Darkthrone - Dark Thrones And Black Flags (2008)

Country: Norway

Genre: Black Metal / Punk / Heavy Metal

Label: Peaceville Records

Website: Facebook / Myspace

You cannot have hard feelings for this guy. Throughout the years Darkthrone have been one of the most controversial black metal bands, they were around in the heart of the norwegian everything back then and the scene owes them a lot. They changed later, and this is a more punkish version of them, i still recognize the old school touch and i love this kind of raw songs that they create.

There is nothing that black metal in this release though, i just wanted to keep the flag high, hahaha... The whole thing is just awesome. Just see for yourselves. Im glad there are a couple of bands from the glorious 90s Norway that haven't put their asses to the shithouse after all these years.