Salythia "Death D’core EP"

    Sometimes I honestly can’t decide how to describe a metal band. Are they thrash, hardcore, death metal, melodic death metal or blackened thrash crust punk? I feel bands that allow listeners a chance to hear multiple influences in a clever way when listening to an album, really offer those listeners a unique experience.
    Coming from Sacramento, CA, Salythia is an up and coming band that does not place themselves into on sub-genre, or claim to be some ridiculous blend of sub-genres like blackened thrash crust peace punk d-beat (A band actually described themselves to me in that way!). With their EP, “Death D’core,” Salythia presents eight musical compositions that display great variety. Also, I like how the band has these transitional tracks that set up certain songs such as track number two, “Interlude I: Of Great Disdain.” It reminded me of my favorite Pestilence album, “Testimony of the Ancients,” were there are short instrumental transitional tracks that give the album a certain flow.
    Now, Salythia kicks off the EP with a slamming track called, “Bloodlust.” The song has a brutal tone and an unapologetic death metal nature. The guitar riffs hit hard as the vocals come in growling at full force. There is a solid level of technicality and the music always seems to shift in a different direction compared to what I expect.
    Track number three in my opinion is Salythia’s best representation of what this band is all about. I hear thrash influence to melodic death metal, but the music maintains this level of great creativity. On this track the band really hammers out a great piece of music. The mix of clean and growl vocals works really well. Usually, I am extremely critical of the clean and growl vocal mix and tend to let my metal elitist alter ego takeover, but for some reason I thought the music sounded great with the contrasting vocal style. Best song on the EP in my opinion.
    I thought track four, “Shattered (A New Beginning),” was another solid composition, especially the introduction instrumental part. The quick thrash like guitar bursts instantly captured my attention. However, I did not feel the vocal contrast came across as strong as it did on, “Affliction.” Though for the most part this song’s instrumental structure was very impressive and full of unexpected moments. Same goes of the song, “Dementia.” The music is powerful and is played at a solid extreme sounding level. Big shout out to the rhythm section of this band too for creating a heavy sounding backbone that adds to the band’s aggressive and creative sound.
    The last full track on this album, “Chaos By Design,” captures the band going off into a heavier more progressive metal like area. Insane instrumental pieces and vocal parts just seem to explode through my speakers. The song is very abrasive sounding at times, yet there is this part during the song where the one of the vocalists references line from Shakespeare. Metal and Shakespeare...who would have thought?
    My final thoughts on this EP are that Salythia is a band with plenty to offer the metal world. I think if people really listen carefully, there are so many different areas of metal music that you can hear when listening to this EP. I honestly think for a young band, Salythia has plenty of potential and the opportunity to attract a wide range of followers. I think metal music right now needs passion and variety, so bands like Salythia will hopefully keep pushing forward and trying to find new ways to be creative in the metal world.

Salythia Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/salythia

Cvinger Interview

Here is an interview with the Slovenian Black Metal band Cvinger! Make sure to check out their debut full-length album, "The Enthronement ov Diabolical Souls," extreme music worthy enough to scare a group of old church going ladies!

Q: Hello member or members of Cvinger, first off I need to say great job on the new album, "The Enthronement ov Diabolical Souls." The album really offers up some unbelievable extreme musicianship.

A: Thank you and we are very happy that you enjoyed the album.

Q: How long did it take for you to write the album (Come up with the instrumental compositions and write the lyrics)? Did the band have most of these songs written up before you guys went into the studio to record? Also, who does most of the song writing or is it an equally effort?

A: We wrote and record The Enthronement of Diabolical Souls in little more then 6 months. First our guitarist Bagot wrote all the guitar parts, then we arranged and practiced the songs together as a band in our practice room, so that we could record the album with confidence.

Q: Now, what I really enjoyed about this album compared to other black metal albums I have heard, is that the songs flow together as if they are telling a story. Also, the album is divided into three chapter which I thought was interesting. What influenced the lyrical ideas for this album and did you write the album as a concept album?

A: When our singer Lucerus was writing the lyrics he was highly influenced with dark and occult rituals and mythology of the ancient nations and middle ages. With chapters the songs definitely feel connected with one another and we like that, but we didn't have the plan to write it as a concept album.

Q: Some of the compositions on this album are pretty damn extreme. What song would you say was the most difficult to record, or the most challenging if played live?

A: The recording went very smooth so there wasn't any particular song that we had trouble recording. For me personally the hardest one to play live is Eikmus Manifestaton, but for the band I would say Reclaim the Crown, because of the rhythmical difficulty of the song.

Q: Being a black metal band, I am sure you are aware of the stereotypes that are associated with the sub-genre such as, the music sounds like it was recorded in a basement with a 1990’s answering machine. However, the production on this album was really well done and I think the songs were strengthened by the production value. I want to know what are your thoughts on the album's production? Where did you record this album?

A: We wanted a more modern sound because we feel that with the clear sounding music listeners could understand our album and embrace the evil and dark atmosphere. So we are very pleased with the way we produced the album. All of the recording was done in our home studio - Truga Studio.

Q: I read in your bio that you are from Slovenia. Is there a strong metal scene in your area? Also, what music did you listen to growing up that may have influenced your musical identity?

A: I think that Slovenia has a very strong and diverse metal scene with a lot of great bands. I started listening to metal with Iron Maiden and then I eventually progressed towards more extreme genres, so now I mostly listen to progressive, death and black metal. As a band we are influenced with bands such as Mayhem, Marduk, 1349 and so on, with death metal bands like Immolation and also with classical music and movie soundtracks, for example the main riff in the song Reclaim the Crown was written like a homage to Imperial March from Star Wars.

Q: With the album out I was wondering if you guys will do any touring? Do you plan on playing any shows or festivals in the future?

A: In December we did a short East European tour and we will announce some more European dates soon. We would love to play some festivals but we haven't booked any yet. Currently we are playing in our home country Slovenia.

Q: For my last question I want to give you a chance to briefly explain to people reading this interview as to why they should check out the album. What is the one aspect of this album that you think stands out compared to the other extreme metal recordings that have come out this year?

A: I would say that our album is a great mixture of everything we love about black metal and is very direct. You will hear evil and darkness and nothing else.

Q: Well, thanks for doing this interview and keep writing solid sounding extreme black metal music! The world needs more good black metal bands and less black metal bands like the one Nicolas Cage's son is in. Cheers! \m/

A: Thank you and keep supporting metal \m/