Mastermind...

Genre: progressive power metal

The fourth installment in Lion Music's ongoing reissue series of Consortium Project's back catalog, "Children of Tomorrow" was originally released in 2007, but will see the light of day once again in March this year.

On the previous album, "Terra Incognita (The Undiscovered World)" Ian Parry seemed to have found the sound for his Consortium Project, drawing on the groove and heaviness of the rather forgettable debut album and the much better sophomore effort "Continuum in Extremis" and adding a symphonic and progressive touch.

"Children of Tomorrow" pretty much continues down the same road as on "Terra Incognita (The Undiscovered World)", initiating the album with a symphonic and epic intro which even features a wee spoken narrative. The opening riff of the starter, is a heavy and groovy riff, and the track has a quite dark atmosphere overall - and this atmosphere is ubiquitous throughout the entire album. An interesting feature is the use of oriental-ish moods like in the epic-sounding 'Nowhere Fast' and the groovy 'Exodus', while tracks like 'Shadows' and 'Made in Heaven' features some retro prog rock-like spacey keyboards, and 'Enigma' and 'Mastermind' are uptempo and aggressive.

In keeping with the tradition of power metal which the sound of Consortium Project has always been anchored in, the choruses on this album are big and epic, but, interestingly, not as catchy as on the predecessor. Still, they go well together with the overall epic feel.

Fans of dark progressive power metal should definitely check out this central opus in the corpus of Ian Parry's work.

Black hearts...

Genre: crossover

What do you get when you crossbreed metal and hardcore? Metalcore, you say. Well, no, not necessarily. You see, before metalcore, there was crossover which combines thrash metal and hardcore punk, and which has much more edge and tends to be much more abrasive than metalcore.

The New Low from the hometown of none other than Hans Christian Andersen (it's called Odense, in case you didn't know) play crossover metal, drawing on both thrash metal and hardcore, also infusing elements from hardrock, traditional metal and more old school punk rock into their style, and on "Misery", they show that crossover thrash still is awesome and that it is still possible to be innovative within that genre.

After a citation of William Blake's 'Auguries of Innocence', the title track kicks off the album with, perhaps surprisingly, an energetic old school heavy metal guitar figure in the same vein as the main riff of Iron Maiden's 'Back in the Village' - the track quickly takes on a more primitive punk-thrash character, which rocks hard and wonderfully aggressively, and there is also a set of very moshing friendly midpaced sections in this track. 'Sick of You' is a slightly heavier affair, which introduces both hard rock twang and groove into the overall sound of the album. And these elements characterize the remainder of the album, which seamlessly and very efficiently changes back and forth between hardcore punk, thrash metal, groove, traditional metal and hard rock as well as some more alternative metal oriented stuff.

I think that all tracks on the album are very strong - they are generally simple (but not dumb) and aggressive, but still The New Low manage to cram a lot of different elements into each track, and that generates a lot of energy and variation. With an average song length of about 2:40 minutes, the tracks on the album are thus very compact, which I appreciate.

The production is unpolished and that goes well with the angry street attitude of the music itself (just check the angrily screamed lead vocals and the riot choruses that pop up in some of the tracks), and the musicianship is characterized by both feel and professionalism.

Drawing on a lot of different influences and combining these into their own brand of crossover metal, The New Low have created a piece of work in "Misery" which should appeal broadly to fans of such diverse acts as Agnostic Front, The Misfits, S.O.D., The Kandidate, Pantera, Pro-Pain, Discharge, Metallica, Generation Kill, and Anthrax. Fans of crossover metal should definitely check this release out, which might also appeal to fans of hardcore punk, thrash metal, and sludge metal.

Fearless...

Genre: melodic death metal

Another melodic death metal band from the Gothenburg area? Oh no, not another one of those! They all sound the same!

Well, Deals Death actually is not yet another Gothenburg melodeath clone. The influence from the likes of At the Gates and early In Flames is definitely present, but Deals Death have actually avoided the typical Gothenburg sound altogether, opting instead for a slightly more thrashy and slightly rawer sound. There are, of course, lots of melodic elements, and Deals Death also make use of keyboards and other electronic effects every now and then to add a further melodic dimension - other than that, the central element is the guitars, which provide both solid riffs and catchy melodic leads and harmonies.

For some reason, the two first tracks 'Collapse' and 'Fearless' failed to rock my world, but it did not take long for the third track 'Eradicated' with its blend of thrashy aggression and classic metal-derived riffage to convince me that this is indeed a good album. I particularly like the uptempo and thrashy approach and Deals Death's ability to seamlessly go back and forth between thrashy, melodic, and groovy bits, and there are even a couple of power metal moments every now and then (just check the closing track 'Illumination') The keyboards come across a bit cheesy every now and then, and the screamed vocals can be a bit too much at times, but this is a minor point and does not change the fact that this is one of the better melodeath releases in recent years.

As a collective of musicians, Deals Death live up to the title of this album. The rhythm section is rock solid, and the guitar solos are virtuous, but never steal the picture. The production is not as polished as is otherwise typical of melodeath, but it is still clear and well defined and definitely does not disservice to the music on this album.

With "Elite", Deals Death have taken melodeath a couple of steps away from the pop direction that more recent melodeath artists have been moving towards and re-injected the aggression that characterized original Swedish melodeath back into the genre. Fans of At the Gates, Arch Enemy and early In Flames should definitely check it out.

Coldness of metal...

Genre: US power metal

Featuring the likes of Shane French and John Teer as regular members and Pete Blakk and Dave Garcia as guest performers, it is no surprise that VOZ' debut album "Shadows of Night" is a massive barrage of US power metal with razor sharp guitars and plenty of references to traditional metal.

After the epic guitar-harmony-filled intro 'Shadows of Death', the album is kicked into gear through the aggressive 'Coldness of Night' which combines galloping guitars and almost thrashy riffage, a style which is continued in the following track 'The Happening', which also features some more groovy riffage, while tracks like 'Underworld', 'Run' and 'Witch Hunter' are heavier, but no less aggressive.

Bolstering the core line-up, Pete Blakk and Dave Garcia, as mentioned above, make guest appearances providing lead guitars, and, consequently, the listener can expect both technically advanced and frenzied shreddy soloing, while the rhythm guitars are massive, and drummer Jack Teer - true to the power metal ethos - delivers double bass drums galore. Morrie Vozdecky's vocals might take some getting used to, and might even be an acquired taste, as his singing combines a bit of Ripper Owens, a bit of Rob Halford, and a bit of King Diamond. I can imagine that some listeners might find the vocals too hysterical, but I like that uncontrolled aspect of Vozdecky's singing.

I think that many fans of aggressive US power metal will like the music itself, but the production is perhaps too raw and unpolished to many of the same listeners. Generally, it seems a bit thin and lacks a solid bottom, but at the same time, it definitely is refreshing with a raw-sounding release in a genre otherwise known for very polished productions.

A solid debut which shows a lot of future potential VOZ' "Shadows of Death" is a tour de force of all the virtues of US power metal and should appeal to fans of the likes of Cage, Iced Earth and Manowar.

Metal is eternal...

Genre: blackened doom-death

Polish black-death veterans Pandemonium are about to release yet another slab of darkness and evil in the form of the Misanthropy-album upon the world.

The cover art is simple and darj, yet with a shades and depth. This also describes the music quite well. Drawing on black metal, death metal and doom metal, Pandemonium operate with riffage which is fairly simple and compositions which are not too complex (it should be mentioned that we are not dealing with dumbed down music in any way). The influence from the three genres is quite well balanced. From black metal, Misanthropy has inherited the emphasis on expression and repetition, and, from doom metal, it has inherited the many heavy passages and the overall doom-ladden atmosphere – and all of this is wrapped in the brutality of death metal.

The interesting thing here is that the album is simultaneously consistent – bordering on monotonous to some people, I can imagine – and varied and multifaceted in terms of melody and modes of expression (there are even a couple of tracks that feature amazing female vocals that combine operatic singing with a more Eastern touch). And it is this paradox which is so well reflected in the coverart.

In terms of musicianship and songwriting, Misanthropy is a very fine piece of work, and we are definitely dealing with experienced and skilled musicians. Unfortunately for me, the vocals do not appeal to me at all – I have given the album a lot of spins now, and still there is absolutely nothing about the vocals (except the above-mentioned female vocals, of course) that appeals to me. In fact, I find the vocals quite off-putting, and they disturb my overall listening experience. It rarely happens to me that extreme metal vocals disagree with me so much that I cannot abstract from them, but apparently the range of extreme metal vocal techniques used on this album, ranging from growls over what sounds like puking to very cookie-monster-like vocals, are too much for me to handle.

But, let me reiterate, musically, this is a very interesting and very well put together album, and fans of blackened death metal and death doom should definitely check out Misanthropy - who knows, you might even love the vocals.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)