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New Music: Crowbar, Boris, Mayhem

Apr 8 • News, The Slumbering Ent • 2526 Views

Not to be a prick here but doing up these news stuff is such a drag. But these 3 tracks warrant at the least a listen, through the level of influence they’ve had on much of modern metal. And yes i’ll try and bring you more of such posts. gah! Everybody’s lazy!

1. Crowbar

Its about time. Jump into the slow sludge groove soup with Crowbar. “Walk With Knowledge Wisely” is their debut single from their soon to be released 10th album ‘Symmetry in Black’, via eOne Music.

2. Boris

This Japanese doom/drone-off-center trio is nothing short of prolific. From what appears to be their 23rd album titled ‘Noise’, is their first single Quicksilver. The band seems to have shed a lot of that post-rockish skin from their last album.

To be released via Sargent House Records.

3. Mayhem

This will definitely leave a lot of those ‘dead’ turning in their graves. This is the second song titled ‘VI.Sec’ from the soon to be released Psywar, via Season of Mist.

The track is streaming at the Terrorizer website.

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Dying Embrace – Era of Tribulation

Apr 6 • Indian News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 3078 Views

Achintya Venkatesh reviews the compilation album from Dying Embrace titled Era of Tribulation

‘Era of Tribulation’ is a compilation that comprehensively chronicles the various releases of the band spanning the 90’s to the early 2000’s. Despite the amalgamation of various releases, the band exhibits little to no stylistic evolution across the compilation and this is nothing but a good thing in this case. The entire album, if one ignores the fact that the tracklisting for the self-titled demo and Grotesque EP overlap, essentially feels like a monolithic experience as opposed to a conventional compilation record. Jimmy Palkhivala’s axe-work is simplistic and doomy in an exaggeratedly aggrandized manner, and the general mood of the riffs presents itself in a manner that induces a feeling of enjoyability, as opposed to specifically seeking to create a foreboding atmosphere. Each riff is unique and stands out due to their sheer bluesy candor, while still maintaining their luridly sinister overtones. The lead work has a very free flow to it, but is not devoid of technical adroitness and as already mentioned has a blues-like bearing to the treatment, perhaps a direct nod to the band’s 70’s Sabbath-ian and Thin Lizzy influences, but in production values a little spasmodic and removed from its rhythmic base.

Vikram Bhat’s vocal treatment has a grating texture, palpably propelled by the production shortcomings of the recordings and could be deemed akin to the exaggerated sense of dread as in the cheesiness of a yesteryear horror flick, but also weak in the sense they lack the booming quality and volume of other vocalists in the context of a conventional death/doom vein such as the Peaceville pioneers, and often descend into a more tepid quality very frequenly. On the other hand, Jai Kumar’s bass attack accentuates both the riffs and the fuzz-laden ambience, while Daniel David’s sticksmanship is appropriately measured according to the riff’s pacing.

Most tracks are doomy indulgence but with a palpable propensity for the jammy and blues-y sense of compositional nuancing, and yet tracks such as ‘Cromlech of Hate’ impression up one as if they were the band’s attempt at an exaltation to the likes of Autopsy. If one would have to make comparisons, one could look at the relative percussive dynamism of the songs as something inspired by early Paradise Lost – never outright blasting yet always active, with an audible propensity towards blues-derived song writing tendencies and an overall jammy flow of compositional evolution. Percussive sprightliness is clearly found far more at the genre’s roots and earliest practitioners (‘Lost Paradise‘ by Paradise Lost is an obvious example) than the manner in which the genre evolved thereon in this regard, being far more stripped down and lumbering. But such comparisons are quite honestly redundant because the band truly succeeds in forging an immensely unique sound for themselves, but its subject to debate how “fun” one in our doom.

The production is appropriately grainy and crude, not in a fashion that causes aural abhorrence but a punishing gratification driven by its organic sound, and of course serves as a vector to further reinforce the attempted ominousness of the songs. The artwork and inner sleeves deserve commendations as well and are very well conceptualized. In essence, the band successfully conjures a murky potpourri of bluesy heavy metal-induced doom metal. All the songs are quite engaging in the sense that the band perpetually throws in illuminating song-writing concepts who’s charm lies in their evanescent and melody-driven sense of straightforward enjoyability. Perhaps the band is being self-defeatist in this sense, betraying the roots and essence of the genre, but they also usher in a buoyancy and amusement in this broad stylistic mould, going for something that is far more “fun”, at the risk of repeating myself, as opposed to creating moods that are genuinely dismal. It’s good for what it is, and certainly an excellent look at the beginnings of the mixed-bag metal scene that characterizes India.

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Shin to Shin – S/T

Apr 5 • International News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 2296 Views

Mohammad Kabeer reviews the debut self titled from Shin to Shin, released via A389 Recordings

Punk has had a considerable influence on metal. Had it not been for punk, black metal and death metal would have been very different and thrash probably would have never existed. Metal has had an influence on punk as well, Metallic hardcore bands like Anion, Skinfather and Full of Hell make punk sound even more extreme than anyone could imagine. Today I am going to review a band..or musician rather, that celebrates this fusion like no other could.

Shin to Shin is the Side project of Aaron Melnick, who although plays in many different bands like Die Hard, Inmates and In Cold Blood (a band he formed with his brother Leon Melnick in the late 90’s) , he is most remembered for his work with legendary metallic hardcore pioneers Integrity. He has contributed to some of the band’s most important releases such as Those Who Fear Tomorrow and Systems Overload. In Shin to Shin, Aaron remains close to his metallic hardcore roots , while also adding a touch of some pure, good old fashioned metal which makes for some interesting results, to start with the slow Beatdown( a kind of breakdown like in metalcore for the uninitiated) riffs that are the hallmark of an Integrity record and for the genre as well sound all the more gritty and heavy here. It’s got that extra bite, that punch that I feel was missing in Integrity. I especially enjoyed this riffs in the title track Shin to Shin, Which I was headbanging constantly to! The metal part of this album comes mostly from the guitar solos which sound straight out of an old school thrash or death metal record. These are mostly played along with the beatdown riffs or some of the faster hardcore parts which include the staple skank beats and chord based guitar work. Aaron’s passionate, confident soloing definitely adds a lot of flash. A lot of showmanship in a simple straightforward genre like hardcore makes this a unique and innovative blend of the two genres. Done so in a way that it so represents both of their qualities fairly without watering things down to a cheap bastardization of either genre.

This makes Shin to Shin’s debut album a glorious celebration of everything about Hardcore/Metal and eventually about being different from the pack , despite in the smallest way possible. I think Aaron’s debut album was a great ride from start till end is something which I enjoyed thoroughly. If you are an Integrity fan you definitely have to check out!

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Indian Rock And Metal Documentaries

Apr 3 • All Updates, Indian News, International News, News • 5004 Views

From when rock began in India for the very first time till today, we’ve been a very interesting growing scene. Here are a few videos of rock and metal documented in India as well as a few local ones too.

Indian Rock And Metal Documentaries

This is part one and two of a ‘Rockumentary’ on the ‘becoming of Indian rock’ by Musicancy. Pretty nice. Talks about ‘Rockmachine’ and ‘Millennium’, bands I was absolutely fascinated by!

Part 1

Part 2

Rockumentary – the evolution of Indian Rock was Directed by music journalist Abhimanyu Kukreja during his stint with NewsX, a national English Channel based in India. The documentary was released on national Indian television in the year 2008 and still gets broadcast occasionally. In 2005, while still being in university, Abhimanyu realised that not much was written about Indian rockers as compared to their international counterparts. This prompted him to start his own word of mouth research and document the roots of Indian Rock and Roll music. So by the time, he passed out of University, the script was almost ready. Instead of practicing hard news and make an easy career in the news industry, he decided to be a music journalist. He wanted to make a series that would document the history of Indian rock but unfortunately the channel gave him a 24 minute slot. Approximately 450 minutes of footage was shot but a lot of it could not be aired as news stations in India prioritise hard news over rock music. Not their fault, rock is not exactly a selling point for them. During his time with zeenews.com and NewsX, he is also credited to have shot and interviewed the likes of Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit), Jethro Tull, Boney M, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Chaka Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Indian Ocean besides a host of other Indian and international acts. Since his resignation from mainstream television, he has been working on his second one which is independent, details of which will be out soon.

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This is the most popular one. ‘Global Metal’ (2008) is a documentary film by Sam Dunn of Banger Films Inc. Sam studied anthropology and his work mostly focused on the heavy metal culture. He made this documentary after ‘Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey’ (2005). He is also popularly known for the Iron Maiden film ‘Flight 666’.

The documentary is on parts of the world where most of the west doesn’t really believe metal thrives. Some people still think we don’t have Internet. But fuck them, check this one out if you haven’t. It’s a must-watch for every metalhead. Featured are some popular dudes like Sahil ‘Demonstealer’ Makhija of Demonic Resurrection, Reptilian Death and Workshop, and heavy metal cooking show Headbanger’s Kitchen, Nolan Lewis of Bangalore band Kryptos, Ananth in Prakalp days, Spiked Crib and an amazing gig at Razz in Bombay.

This was shot back when no major headliners had really played, Iron Maiden being one of the first and biggest bands.

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There was something amazing that came out last year, a film on heavy metal in India by Mehr Singh. At the time, Mehr, a Delhi filmmaker submitted this as her final project while she was doing a course in film and design through the Symbiosis Institute of Design in Pune.

This is another must-watch.

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Now Rock el Casbah hosted by ‘Yusef Hashish’ (I see), had a small episode where he promoted videos of Indian Metal bands like Demonic Resurrection (Mumbai), Scribe (Mumbai), Artillerie (Delhi) and Kryptos (Bangalore).

This guy is epically cute. Please watch! 😛

Bhayanak Maut was also playing randomly in the background!

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We are all aware that Iron Maiden had segments of India in Flight 666. There are some other bands that did so too, like Meshuggah and Parkway Drive. Here are the featured parts of India from their documentaries.

Meshuggah played ‘Great Indian Rock’ in Pune and Delhi in 2010:

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Parkway Drive played Kolkata, India in 2011. This was pretty cool! The crowd was on stage! xD

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And then we have these guys too

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And these guys

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India has also featured in the Lamb of God documentary film ‘As the Palaces Burn’ with me and a segment from the Indian show, which will soon be out of DVD this year.

That’s all for now! 🙂

Article Written by Pratika, originally for Metalsphere.

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Rated: Trenchrot, Drawers, Rise of Avernus

Apr 3 • International News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 2901 Views

Deckard Cain does a few review quickies!

1. Trench Rot – Necronomic Warfare (Unspeakable Axe Records)

There seems to be no dearth of bands trying desperately to resuscitate old gaffers from their graves. Sticking to the ‘ain’t cool if you ain’t old school’ drivel like it’s the holy grail without going much into why it is so. Trench Rot seems to get that. They go for a careful exhumation of the old gods, studying their construct, grabbing at its mechanics, and employing them. For instance, how Bolt Thrower got hold of those ‘permanent tattoo’ melodies and why Matt Tardy sounded like a wounded animal at the end of days. Debut LP Necronomicon Warfare is Trench Rot bowing down at the altar of stacked up ‘Cause of Death’ and ‘Realm of Chaos’ copies, and then churning out hymns to their homage. And yet getting in their own set of good riffs. This is undeniably, a lighting up of death metal’s bed of coals and partying like its 666.

RATING : 4/5

https://www.facebook.com/Trenchrotdeathmetal

2. Drawers – S/T (Kaotoxin)

Torche’s brand of sludge/stoner popularly called Sludgepop is filtered and dried to form little hardened claylike structures which unfortunately, all look the same. Drawers from Germany wear their influences on their sleeves, but don’t do much for originality. As a result, the self titled falls flat in terms of the earworming capacity that a usual Torche outing has. The album is simply void of those infectious melodies and groove ensemble so typical of this style. Barring a few tracks like ‘Bleak’ and ‘Shadow Dancers’ nothing comes close.

RATING : 2.5/5

https://www.facebook.com/drawerskvlt

3. Rise Of Avernus – L’Appel Du Vide (Code 666 Records)

Rise of Avernus’ new record is akin to last year’s Canto III. Harrowing and with a sense of orchestra induced grandiose that Septic Flesh brings to the table. Rise of Avernus melds and casts melodies that will leave you transfixed in the now. But not for long you see. It fleets but fails to sustain. The structures of most songs have an aimless meandering air to it and inevitably leaving one’s attention span at the door. It comes off sounding a bit overdone. While Eye of Solitude’s Canto III was a thoroughly enthralling release, this falls short by a good margin. Then again there is just enough to call this a decent album.

RATING : 3/5

https://www.facebook.com/riseofavernus

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