SIŁA is or was an obscure noise / math rock band from Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland and has so far only released one self-titled album in 2015. Somewhat unique for having the lineup of two bassists, one drummer and a vocalist / saxophone player. This sole release features six skronky tracks that add up to just over 30 minutes.

This is a loud and obnoxious type of noisy math rock that’s something like the perfect marriage of what NoMeansNo and Meshuggah would sound like. The staccato dueling bass stomps are right out of the Meshuggah playbook as are the obnoxious shouted vocals over the heavily distorted noise. Despite the djent references the overall songwriting style is more in the vein of post-hardcore or even crust punk with heavy thick riffing and steady drum attacks.

Another key feature of SIŁA’s sound are the incessant math rock time signatures which punctuate the steady rhythmic groove with impunity. Despite the punk influences the tracks are quite lengthy with some extending past six minutes and the receptive nature of the compositions can become a bit monotonous but SIŁA does deliver some unique interludes from time to time to keep the sludgy toxicity from building up too heavily.

Not a lot of info available about this band so perhaps this was a quick one-off however this is a really good brutal noise rock album for sure. It’s a strange mix of sludge metal, djent, post-hardcore or math rock but what a noble effort. My main gripe is that the mechanical nature of it tends to get a bit samey without enough breaks. It sorta sounds like what Messhugah’s first album should’ve been. All in all an entertaining slice of pure noisy distortion with screaming and feedback. It even features moments of doom metal.

ACID BATH was one of those 90s metal bands that was too eclectic for its own good and despite existing from 1991 to 1997 released two groundbreaking albums that mostly fell on deaf ears during the band’s existence but has slowly but surely attained the status of best metal bands of all time after three decades of retrospect. Forged out of the ashes of the two bands Dark Carnival and Golgotha, ACID BATH was born in 1991 in the small city of Houma, Louisiana situated southwest of New Orleans. The band’s career might’ve taken off however the death of bassist Audie Pitre in 1997 from a car crash pretty much ended any aspirations of continuing. Despite it all, ACID BATH’s two albums have become modern metal classics.

Best known by some as that metal band that used the artwork of serial killer John Wayne Gacy and suicide proponent Dr Jack Kevorkian for its cover art, ACID BATH has been typically lumped into the world of sludge metal for its Melvins inspired sludge metal riffing and Eyehategod bleakness, ACID BATH was so much more with influences from the contemporary world of grunge, alternative metal, stoner metal and even death metal. The debut WHEN THE KITE STRING POPS emerged in 1994, right at the time when grunge bands and their metal hybrids were ruling the roost in the world of popular metal and hard rock. Possibly stunted by not emerging from the Seattle scene, ACID BATH’s debut may have gone mostly unnoticed but was one of those silent revolutionary albums that mixed various musical styles seamlessly.

In many ways ACID BATH was the quintessential 90s band that encompassed many of the trends that were dominating the music world. As “The Blue” opens this lengthy album of 14 tracks that add up to 69 minutes of playing time, the tripped out feedback reminiscent of stoner metal bands like Kyuss add spice to the sludgy downtuned bass and guitar riff driven grooviness. Alternating between a heavier sludge metal style of Eyehategod with obnoxiously screamed vocals and less intense clean vocal segments that evoke the Jethro Tull inspired singing style of Psychotic Waltz’ Buddy Lackey, WHEN THE KITE STRING POPS can’t be accused of being tedious as it consistently shape shifts from pseudo-death metal inspired aggression to Alice In Chains inspired melodic and soulful alternative metal grunge. The all acoustic track “The Bones of Baby Dolls” is right out of the Alice In Chains unplugged playbook.

Despite the myriad stylistic approaches throughout WHEN THE KITE STRING POPS, the most ubiquitous feature of ACID RAIN is the strong dueling guitar effect with one guitarist delivering strong alt metal grunge riffing while the other accents with contrapuntal grooves, licks and occasional lead outbreaks. The star of the show has to be vocalist Dax Riggs who displayed a firm command of the soulful grunge vocal style and was on par with the greats of the era such as Chris Cornell of Soundgarden or Alice In Chains’ Layne Staley. Throughout the course of the album Riggs animates the sludgy stoner grunge metal with a diverse roster of screams from the world of sludge metal, shouts courtesy of hardcore punk, sensual clean vocal styles sounding like a dead ringer for Psychotic Waltz as well as emulating Alice In Chains itself yet while displaying obvious influences ACID BATH managed to craft something totally of its own making.

Perhaps the only downfall of WHEN THE KIT STRING POPS is that of its unwieldy playing time and despite not hosting a single turkey of a track, can be a bit to sit through in one go as the tracks do tend to feature recycled motifs and musical processions however when music is this fantastically good it’s also a treat to simply get more! This is one of those grower albums because after the first listening experience i failed to get all the hype behind it but after the strong melodies and subtle arrangements began to sink in it really got under my skin. My experience is probably the same of many others as by the end of the 90s the album had only old a mere 37,000 copies in the USA but since then has become one of the most revered metal albums of the entire 90s. The band only released one more album, the equally revered “Paegan Terrorism Tactics” two years later before disbanding but the band’s two albums were of such high quality that it guaranteed a slot in the highest ranks of metal history for time immemorial.

PSICOSFERA is an all-instrumental quartet that emerged in the suburb of Morón just outside the city of Buenos AIres, Argentina in 2013. The band experienced three distinct phases, the first lineup that lasted up to and included the debut album ALPHA, the second lineup that produced the sophomore release “Beta,” and the third which added a vocalist and focused more on the black metal aspects. On this debut from 2015, PSICOSFERA consisted of Gabriel Luque (guitar), Gabriel Sabatini (guitar), Juan Facundo Brinville (drums) and Juan Martin Venezia (bass, 2013-15).

This idiosyncratic band has found a way to amalgamate disparate styles of metal and offers a totally new methodology of delivering. By taking the tones, dissonance and cosmic dread of Deathspell Omega, PSICOSFERA has forged a veritable blend of djent-ish post-metal that drifts mid-tempo through 9 tracks (simply titled as Roman numerals) that add up to almost 43 minutes. While sounding like a strain of black metal, the musical procession is not anything like the torturous bleakness of bands like Germany’s Ascension or Blut Aus Nord but offers a touch of dissonant death metal in the vein of Ulcerate or Gorguts without really being death metal all the while meandering through semi-progressive game changers without truly being prog.

This album is a smooth flow of transitions although abrupt changes occur but despite heavy dissonant power chords ceding to clean guitar arpeggios and moments of respite erupting into loud frenzies of instrumental interplay, ALPHA logically connects and doesn’t deliver a strange mix of avant-garde freakery but rather a coordinated attack of instrumental prowess most resembling a typical instrumental post-rock / post-metal act. The absence of vocals gives the entire affair an abstract feel to it but the relaxed oft sludgy chords are designed to evoke philosophical reflection and human suffering. Not sure that translated well but the darkened tones and bleak overall atmosphere certainly evokes a sense of discombobulation that doesn’t resolve throughout the album’s run.

The band is skilled at playing their unique spin on proggy djent delivered in a post-metal procession however the tracks begin to sound a bit repetitive by end’s length and the addition of a wider pallet of influences might’ve served it well but as it is it’s not a bad listening experience at all and allows for a nice drifting escapism albeit a noise boisterous din of one. I always admire bands that know how to develop their own style in between the cracks of the existing genre and evoke the sense of many metal styles simultaneously without really sounding like any. PSICOSFERA has certainly achieved that lofty task but at this point the band still lacks the ability to craft enough disparate ideas to take their stylized efforts to the next level. Still though a very interesting album despite it all.

Based in Vienna but formed in the central Austrian city of Judenburg, CROWORD (often stylized as CroworD) is the brainchild of bassist Lukas Rappitsch who formed the band in 2012 after recruiting Martin Karner (vocals), Michael Karner (guitar), Florian Bogensberger (guitar) and Gabriel Cresnar on drums. They made somewhat of a splash with the debut EP “Manifest of Mortal Sickness” in 2016 and has been gaining momentum ever since but still doesn’t seem to be quite well known outside of its native Austria.

Inspired heavily by the Gothenburg scene of melodic death metal, this quintet has so far released two EPs and this sole full-length THE GREAT BEYOND which came out in 2017, features 12 tracks and adds up to just over 51 minutes of playing time. The album was produced in the band’s own studio with André Alvinzi who has worked with Insomnium and The Foresaken in the producer’s seat. The mastering was done by Jens Bogren of At The Gates, Opeth and Katatonia fame.

Sounding like a veritable mix of Amon Amarth, Dark Tranquility and perhaps a touch of Edge of Sanity, CROWORD delivers a convincing melo-death style that would make you swear they emerged from the southern lands of Sweden. The music features the typical melo-death characteristics of dueling guitar harmonies with distorted down-tuned riffing. The Amon Amarth comparison really ring true with lead singer’s Martin Karner’s deep guttural growling but the music isn’t quite as epic as that Swedish powerhouse.

While mostly an aggressive head banging journey from beginning to start, moments of clean guitar tones with slow melancholic moments do occur particularly on tracks like “Wall of Blackness (Part I) and (Part II).” Chunky riffs with blazing lead guitar solos underneath dominate the soundscape with a bouncy bass groove and diverse array of drumming styles. Generally speaking the band delivers the right mix of aggressive gnarly death metal with the typical melodic guitar sweeps in the vein of classic heavy metal. While as unintelligible as any guttural growly death metal, lyrics are inspired by medieval legends of the Alps and the works of Aldous Huxley, Michael Ende, Antoine Saint-Exupéry and Franz Kafka.

Overall this is a decent band that has absolutely nailed the classic Gothenburg melo-death sound but doesn’t quite add enough original imprints to make this stand out amongst the hoards of competition. Musically speaking these guys are incredibly talented and deliver this style of metal without flinching. It’s not exactly a clone of any particular band but sort of falls between the cracks of various Gothenburg metal bands thus sounding somewhat distinct but not instantly obvious that that’s the case. All in all this is certainly an entertaining listen and displays CROWORD as a veritable act that ready to hit the big time if only they could find some unique spin to break free from the somewhat generic approach they display here.

OBSOLENCE (also stylized as ObsolencE) is an obscure metal band that comes from the eastern Polish city of Siedlce and has been around since 2014 but although still officially active has so far only released one single and this one EP titled INNER VOICE which came out in 2017.

This EP features five tracks at over 32 minutes of playing time and the band’s style is a mix of post-metal and atmospheric sludge metal along with a few death metal elements such as growly vocals and death-doom riffing. Progressive elements are also scattered throughout the mix. The music is on the slower side with a groove sort of like Tool or Incubus only with a lot more dynamics. The death metal moments remind me of Opeth’s early works.

Although the EP flows by at a very relaxed pace the moods shift from dreamy post-rock type passages with clean vocals to heavier death-doomy post-metal. All the tracks are well played but seem to revolve around the same basic idea making the EP a tad on the monotonous side however the pros are that the various tones and dynamics offer variations that are interesting.

On the positive side OBSOLENCE sounds a bit unique even though it often reminds me of some of the alternative and prog death metal bands of the 90s and the occasional reference to the death-doom sounds of Katatonia or similar bands. The band is pretty good at the mellower atmospheric parts but doesn’t deliver to my satisfaction with the death metal tidbits.

Overall this is a decent release that is somewhat unique however the music itself doesn’t really rise above average. It sort of just drifts along with some clean moments here and then some heavier there without really developing any particular song structures. While the band has all the sound effects down and the clear talent to pull it off at this point it lacks any sort of strong songwriting skills. Decent if you like deathened post-metal but nothing too overly exciting. Also i don’t find the vocalist has enough range to breathe life into the project.