Kev Rowland I first came across Avenged Sevenfold at the time of ‘City of Evil’ and soon went back and grabbed the earlier albums, loving their sound and approach. However, for some weird reason I lost track of what they were doing after 2010’s ‘Nightmare’ and this is the first album I have heard since then. We still have the same core quartet of M. Shadows, Johnny Christ, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance along with drummer Brooks Wackerman who joined the band in time for their last album, “The Stage’, and who is probably best known for his long tenure with Bad Religion. Seven years between albums is a long time for any band, but of course there was the small matter of a worldwide pandemic which impacted everyone on the planet. This has also allowed the band to reflect and ensure they have delivered exactly what they wanted. and the result is something which is far more expansive and simply bigger than I would have ever have expected from them. We also have a nod to the past with some lyrics and a bridge included on this which were written by The Rev.

This is a modern metal album which is a long way from their roots, but somehow is also tied to them. There is a passage on “We Love You” which is pure Freddie Mercury and Queen, but it soon switches into Nine Inch Nails and some blistering riffs. I mean, they worked with the 78-piece San Bernardino Symphony orchestra, there is also acoustic guitar, but also plenty of the riffs and attacks we have come to associate with them over the years. To me this is an album where the band have massively changed yet somehow have kept tied to their roots so while the sheer breadth is quite astonishing, they have also ensured older fans will still find plenty on here to enjoy. M. Shadows is singing the best I have ever heard from him, no strain whatsoever and a wonderfully emotional performance which is perfectly suited to the arrangements behind him, although when they decide to go hard, they do just that. In some ways this is reminiscent of the latest Slipknot album in that they also have refused to be pigeonholed and only time will tell as to which will have the biggest impact in the long run. Given that the core quartet have been together since 2002, they are solid in what each of them can achieve and have grown and changed organically, growing up along the way and there is no doubt in my mind that this is their best release to date which should both satisfy old fans and gain them many new ones.

SilentScream213 Arcturus went from cold, compelling Symphonic Black Metal soundscapes to… bizarro twisted circus Metal.

This thing is loaded with different influences; the most prominent styles are Symphonic, Progressive, and Avant-Garde Metal, but there are flavors of Dark Cabaret, Symphonic Black Metal, Drum n Bass, Modern Classical, and probably some other stuff. Interestingly, it reminds me of Sigh from Japan stylistically.

Incredibly interesting and ever changing, but at the end of the day, much less enjoyable than their old style. Some of the songs here are quite great, but even those don’t leave any sense of memorability because this album is not focused on riffs or melody. Rather, you’re more likely to remember a song as “the one that has that circus march theme in it for a minute” or “the one where he does those really goofy operatic vocals.” Just doesn’t suit me much, but I respect the innovation and uniqueness.

siLLy puPPy The brainchild of Tamás Kátai,THY CATALFALQUE has been cranking out one amorphously mysterious album after another since 1999 with each release shapeshifting into something completely new and unexpected. While launching the band in the spirit of second black wave metal with the debut release “Sublunary Tragedies,” THY CATALFALQUE quickly broke the mold of sticking to any orthodoxies and instead was steered into a world of its own making. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Kátai is back with THY CATALFALQUE’s 11th release ALFÖLD, Hungarian for “lowlands” and is depicted on the album cover art which happens to be the terrain from where Kátai spawned and developed his most bizarre mix of black metal, progressive rock, experimental electronica and Hungarian folk music.

In recent years THY CATALFALQUE has been very close to jettisoning its black metal roots altogether with more focus on the Hungarian folk melodies and progressive rock gently teased into the world of metal through the classic distorting riffing and occasional growling vocals but ALFÖLD opens immediately with a return to the world of black metal with the track “A Csend Hegyei” harkening back to the earliest days of the band’s inception. But of course it wouldn’t be a proper modern THY CATALFALQUE if the album didn’t start to zigzag in various directions creating a bizarre tension between competing factions that somehow walk the tightrope act together and in the end perform a stunning circus act unlike any other in the entire metal-verse. This newest release does so with seeming ease.

At a classic album’s running time of 43 1/2 minutes and 9 tracks, ALFÖLD delivers the perfect THY CATALFALQUE recipe of mixing its black metal bombast with the expect folk music and electronic wizardry. At this point Kátai is a cult hero and has attracted a loyal following as well as the respect of many musicians who admire his work. While still the primary writer as well as guitarist, bassist, keyboardist and vocalist, Kátai has employed the talents of 13 guest musicians for the entire album with another 11 making cameos on only one or two tracks. Even though the black metal elements have always been present, on the last few albums the growly vocals have diminished giving the albums a more folk dominant feel but on ALFÖLD the raspy metal rampage is back in full vengeance. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of those softer moments with subdued guitars and clean vocals but there is definitely a more upbeat kick ass feel to this album as opposed to anything of recent years.

What amazes me about THY CATALFALQUE is the consistency in creative reworkings of an established sound but always slightly askew so that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s different. Kátai’s oft angular compositional writing skills are laced with comprehensible grooves but the contrapuntal effects of the electronica and vocal parts often sound startlingly off yet somehow complement each other perfectly. There is no sign of THY CATALFALQUE losing any steam with ALFÖLD and in fact it sounds like this collective has gotten a new burst of energy as it creates one of the heaviest and metal sounding albums in years. As with all albums since 2004’s “Tűnő idő tárlat,” the lyrics are entirely in Hungarian which continues to give this band an even stranger alienating sound since Hungarian is not even a Indo-European language with absolutely no similarities to virtually any other language. Another winner for THY CATALFALQUE. Longevity is apparent with this top act.

siLLy puPPy Jazz-rock fusion has been a thing since the 1960s but in recent years the energy and angst has increased substantially with a whole host of extreme metal bands tackling the jazz-fusion thing and thus jazz metal is no longer just metal with jazzy chord progressions but rather a bonafide marriage of instrumentation. In recent years many bands including Imperial Triumphant and Sarmat have taken the sounds laid out by Gordian Knot and Spastic Ink and run away with it. The Parisian CKRAFT ( not sure if it’s pronounced KRAFT or SEE KRAFT) is the latest band to deliver a heavy tech metal djent sound fortified jazzy accompaniments. Just looking at the instrumentation will tell you this band is different than the legion of traditionalists. In addition to the expected guitar, bass and drums, CKRAFT employs not only a tenor saxophone but takes things further with some French folk flavors via the augmented accordion!

EPIC DISCORDANT VISION is the band’s 2022 debut and lives up to its title fairly successfully. The band does deliver an epic overarching journey into the world of jazz metal all the while fueling the journey with a Messhugah like discordant chugging session. Like many jazz-fusion bands of yore, CKRAFT’s debut is an all instrumental affair with virtuosic passages providing the proper mood setting metal angst and what makes it all the more intriguing is the use of Medieval sounding melodies that yields a bizarre crossroads of the olden days with a fresh new extreme metal sound. This five piece’s debut features ten exhilarating tracks that add up to about 51 minutes in running time. It’s hard to believe this band exists due to Charles Kieny’s love of the accordion but tracks like “Bug Out!” will leave you in disbelief as you hear him shred where normally a guitar would be whizzing up and down the scales!

Comparisons to bands like Gojira and Messhugah have been made but in all honesty CKRAFT hits a home run on its debut and really finds its own voice the first time around. While jazz provides the compositional fortitude, the metal instrumentation sets the pace with fiery crunch riffs and perfect unison energetic deliveries of the guitar, bass and drums. The Medieval accordion sounds add a unique twist that on paper sounds like a very bad idea but somehow this young band pulls it off with seeming ease at that. For the duration of EPIC DISCORDANT VISION, this team of five musicians doesn’t stumble once as each track unfolds perfectly with all the tracks connecting to the other. The band has mastered not only the jazz and metal fusion but has also provided the perfect contrast of dynamics, tone manipulation, tempo variations and transitions from one mood to the other. In other words this album is flawless.

Perhaps the most unique feature of this band is by far the augmented accordion which is a standard accordion that is played directly into synthesizers and the equivalent of a guitar pedal or preset on a keyboard. Upon first listen i did not realize that i was hearing an accordion but once i discovered exactly what was going on here i was all the more impressed the ingenuity and creative inclusion of this most unmetal of instruments! When all is said and done EPIC DISCORDANT VISION is a brilliant slice of jazz metal that doesn’t deviate from what one would consider as such but adds enough twists and turns to make it relevant in the burgeoning metal market of the third decade of the 21st century. While this was love at first listen, all the details only have allowed this one to grow on me and when all is said and done, this is really a modern metal masterpiece on many fronts! An exciting new band that will surely expand beyond this debut. My kinda wild raucous ride! Bravo!

siLLy puPPy As i’ve been saying for a number of years now, extreme metal is the new prog at least in terms of avoiding retro copycatism and being the primary innovative of the experimental and avant-garde which provides the world of cutting edge music into the next stages of complex musical evolution. The NYC based SARMAT with its debut titled DETERMINED TO STRIKE is the primo example of this case by delivering a stylistic approach where the worlds of old school death metal, 21st century technical death metal, progressive rock and jazz all get together for a wild and raucous time joining the ranks of other proggy jazz-metal acts like Imperial Triumphant, CKRAFT, Neptunian Maximalism and The Odious just to name a few modern bands.

Brought to us by I, Voidhanger Records, a label that has been the cutting edge of bold experimental metal propelling the genre into the next phases of mind f.u.ckery, SARMAT provides that unique crossroads where extreme metal, prog and jazz intersect seamlessly as if a new species has become a genetically distinct entity from its ancestry. DETERMINED TO STRIKE is a rather short affair by modern standards just squeaking past the 35-minute mark and in many ways harkens (drums), Cotter Champlain (guitar), Andrew Gonzalez (vocals), Oleg Zalman (guitar) and Rajan Davis (bass). In its 2023 debut year, SARMAT released not only this full-length but also an EP titled “Dubious Disk” which features a mere 17 1/2 minute title track.

“Formed From Filth” wastes no time displaying the technical virtuosity with dueling guitar wankery that reminds me of bit of Necrophagist albeit without the depths of hell darkness aabrutality. SARMAT has a more even-keeled approach to dishing out its doses of death metal aggression. The album is chock full of non-metal segments such as the creepy piano roll that ushers in “Landform” as well as several trumpet appearances on no less than four tracks not to mention a soprano sax on “Determined to Strike (Dead Hand Cycle Part 1).” Generally speaking the trumpet provides a frenetic John Zorn inspired loose cannon soloing style while the guitars, bass and drum provide a chugging metal backdrop.

Despite the presence of a couple brass instruments, SARMAT loses none of the death metal ferocity and adds the jazz instrumentation in a way that actually complements the thundering roar and devilish din that keeps the world of death metal firmly in the depths of a hellish gutter which has made it so appealing since the 1980s. While the term jazz-metal is only getting started, SARMAT beckons the question of the fact that perhaps a term called brass metal is in the future and a period of such bands will be the modern interpretation of the brass rock scene of the late 60s and early 70s. Whatever the case i have to say that SARMAT does this stylistic approach justice without feeling cheesy for even a second.

Overall i love this debut! It’s the kind of wacky unorthodox metal that suits me best, the type that is not afraid to venture into bizarre new arenas and making sure it actually sounds good. In many ways this sounds like a fiery no holds barred debut from a bunch of adrenalized youth with incessant death metal brutality punctuated only by short intros and occasional moments of reflection. Otherwise this is a heavy death metal extravaganza that happened to invite a couple jazz musicians over to the party for good measure! Despite the incessant tempos the band still finds some key moments to unleash some quieter avant-prog fueled jazz-rock but the trajectory is full steam ahead for the most part which makes this a captivating debut. This is yet another band i look forward to hearing more from. You go, I, Voidhanger Records!