Weekly Recommendations!

Mar 23 • International News, Releases, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 4031 Views • No Comments on Weekly Recommendations!

See! Even Walter approves it!

Things have been pretty slow on the blogfront. Well i am not going to let out another bunch of excuses and exaggerated moans. Screw it! Lets get on with it already.

With this new edition of posts, i try to bring to your notice a few bands that really have something going for them this year. Albums that i can hopefully coax you into listening. And of course, all the while hoping that you are not a conservative schmuck and is open to all forms of music. But i’d definitely try and stay within the confines of metaldom(did i tickle your conservative dongs there?). That said, these need not always be great albums but they sure are great listens. Hopefully i end up introducing you to something new.

Vex – Memorious

1. Vex – Memorious

I’ve always preferred old school Swedish death metal to the Gothenberg (gah! Swedish again but you get me). Probably due to their more reserved use of melody rather than spattering it all over the place. Most modern melodeath melodies(err! too much ‘M’ there) tires the listener as much as an hour of say technical death metal or listless drone does. Careful and meticulous placement of the melody is tantamount to a good record. Vex seems to get it. Coupled with their really raw and semi-murky production things pan out pretty well. Their sense of melody although subtly eye at the Irish band Primordial’ brand of folkiness, they seem to take it to their own little level. Check out ‘Terra Soar’ for instance, which is probably the best representation of their sound and maybe if you end up digging it move on to the entire bandcamp player.

Lantern – Below

2. Lantern – Below

Speaking of old school death metal, Lantern’s Below is by far the best release the genre can boast of all year. Apart from that, Dark Descent is clearly on a roll once again. Quality releases from Krypts, Vorum, and Deprecation have all highlighted how the genre and label can still churn of gems despite being incessantly banked on. Lantern takes the cake though, for fully plowing the dark recesses of the genre and unearthing something completely whole. For instance the band does not limit itself to the staple OSDM diet and inculcates elements of doom, black and thrash primers to the genre. And yes the production is as raw as one might expect and yet it does not manage to diminish any of the quality beheld within.

Check out the track Entrenching Presences which starts off in beefed up Bolt Thrower fashion only lead you into another face pummeling riff.