Revenge - Behold.Total.Rejection

Revenge is another one of those bands hat has shamefully passed under my radar until now. I've been on a big pop punk kick lately (Come at me bro) so that makes the sheer aural destruction of the bands new record Behold.Total.Rejection all the more stunning. Intentionally muddy, beautifully chaotic and with a wonderfully awful sounding bass drum this is the band that eats other blackened death metal bands for breakfast, lunch and dinner. From the opening seconds of the album it is immediately clear, Revenge might have been the heaviest thing to happen in 2015.

Behold.Total.Rejection is like something from a different planet, this band can only really be compared to Nails in terms of sheer intensity. The buzzing guitars and drums that just ring in your eats reflect the inherent bitterness behind a band that God forgot. In a world where we are all exposed to brutal death metal and think it silly it's always weird to find a band that make you take a step back and go 'oh shit.' but Revenge are that band. They understand the American hardcore polemic but fuse it with some very European tendencies to get a sound that is timeless and will have power over the whole world.

As you hear this band blaze forward, at once invoking the darkest moments of black metals demo days as well as the rabid intensity of more modern releases it becomes impossible to deny that Revenge are on the absolute cutting edge. This is a band who no one can tell what to do. A band who will drive every nail into your skull and then laugh as you suffer. Revenge don't care what you think all they know is suffering, and the sublime darkness and overpowering noisy annihilation will have you writhing in the murk.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/RevengeofficialSoMpage

Arroganz - Tod & Teufel

Stop whatever you are doing right now and grab your calendar. Set aside about and two hours of your free day: one to listen to Arroganz's magnificent third studio release, Tod & Teufel, and another one to get your head back in place. Although this German horde takes pride in the brutality of its Death Metal, it is the Atmospheric Black Metal feel that hover above the entire work that ties this album together.

In fact, the tracks pieces so well together that I would not be surprised if this were a conceptual album. Most tracks follow a theme-variation structure, which not keeps the the riff-heavy pieces (which are few, for modern standards) coherent , but also reinforces the somber atmosphere.

The album opens with i.d.t.m, which introduces the crunchy timbres and half-step bends that permeate the following tracks. One Death then creates momentum by speeding up, finally exploding in the following Arisen From Failure, Perished As King. Ironically, Tod & Teufel - chaotic and with many blast beats - strikes me as the most atypical work in the album. Demons Heart, characterized by marked down beats, and strong riffs, pulls you back to a dark descending path, to the dragging, agonizing Intoxication.

All Light Is a Lie becomes the apex of the album by cleverly playing around the added sharp fourth in a Gm blues pentatonic scale. At this point, the album had captured me to the point that I had to replay the track and try to play over it, just to relieve some of my anxiety. The next two tracks, Black Aura, and Guilty, keep the momentum towards the Burzum-esque closing piece, Alles.

Tod & Teufel was the perfect soundtrack for a cloudy Philadelphia day. It is a heavy, emotional, and raw album that is sure to keep dropping jaws for decades to come.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/hellishhordes

The Furor-Impending Revelation

Blackened thrash metal is rapidly becoming one of my favorite genres of metal. That glorious mix of thrash metals rage with blackened hatred creates music that is extremely real feeling. A one man project from the drummer of Impiety, this is the kind of hyper speed record that drives right into the gut, leaving you a slave to the crushing might of a band who doesn't feel the need to follow the rules. Louise Rando (Dizazter to some of you) has proved that he is far greater than just Impiety, and in fact, The Furor might be an even better project.

Part of the glory of Impending Revelation is that the drums seem to have a special place in the mix. This might make sense for a drummers solo project, but the point is that it helps to make the songs on Impending Revelation a lot punchier. The vocals have a wonderful black metal hatred behind them with all sorts of powerful screams roaring out and ripping out the hearts of the innocent. Toss in guitar riffs that have the sort of blazing black metal magic that draws so many of us to the genre and you start to get a sense for the triumph might found on this record. The only band who has really done anything similar from a sheer rage perspective might be Endstille.

So, simply put, there may be no better way to spend your Labor Day than enjoying the fruit of the labor of one of metals greatest drummers. This record proves Dizazter to be not just an excellent musician but a gifted songwriter with a knack for crafting fairly iconoclastic and hard hitting pieces. An album filled with triumphant solos and riffs you can really latch on too Impending Revelation is much like the drum beats on much of this record, a blast. Dive into the pit and prepare to rip off a couple of faces, The Furor brings all the hatred you need to get through another week in hell.

Find them on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/TheFurorObliterate

Oath Of Damnation - The Descent

From down under Australia Oath of Damnation has been spawned to bring their first full length cd to take over the world. Although my knowledge in black metal has its limits, it goes far enough to realize The Descent is an album to listen to. Growls coming the depths of hell, insane blast beats and the various solo's will obliterate your speakers. The way In Damnation Memoriae and Sergius III overlaps is insane, it was perfect, no nonsense intro's, just complete annihilation and a wall of sound that won't stop hitting you.

The keys will make its way during Sergius III and through this melodic way the song comes more to life. All in all the album feels like a steamroller not planning to stop for the next 30 minutes, but through the various switches it stays exciting and for someone who isn't a black metal fan, it is very enjoyable. It's not your typical black metal band, everything is really thought-out and there are a lot of variations between the songs, the solo's together with the rhythm guitar are melodic and amazing. With the ritual and self-titled The Descent and Shroud of Spoleto they have an album to be proud of. If you're a black metal fan, be sure to give this album a listen.

https://www.facebook.com/OathOfDamnation/