Unlucky Theta “Debut EP”

    Back in the 80’s Los Angeles was ruled by dudes with big hair and spandex that wrote songs about sex, drugs and cherry pie. Unlucky Theta is looking to help people forget about that period of time with their new self-titled six song EP.

    These Southern California based musicians are an anomaly in the world of rock and metal. To try and define this band’s sound is definitely not an easy task. I bet a writer for Rolling Stone would suffer a panic attack because they could not process how atypical Unlucky Theta compares to the garbage Rolling Stone tries to pedal upon the mindless masses. I have been fortunate enough to see Unlucky Theta live, so I can appreciate this band’s bold vision to step outside the mundane box that leads so many bands down a road of repetitive generic bullshit. 

    There is a bit of sludge, punk, thrash, death and even folk incorporated into this band’s dynamic style of songwriting. The first song off of the EP, “Thrown Off Olympus Mons,” is a massive sounding planet colliding piece of music. Right away bassist/vocalist Daniel Goodman and guitarist Nick Kontje  unleash a storm of juggernaut sized riffs while drummer Ariel Bleiberg deals out a Stone Cold Steve Austin like ass whooping from behind the kit. Once you get to the middle section of the song where Daniel starts shouting out bellicose sounding lyrics, you feel as though you are being crushed by a mountain of pure bone crushing brutality.  On the second track, “Parthian Shot,” the band begins with more of a classic punk approach and then turns up the insanity by conjuring up a flurry of catchy sounding rebellious riffs. 

    Track number three, “Venus,” hits hard and leaves a wake of destruction in its smoldering path as the band keeps pushing the pedal down in terms of raw artistic expression. Also, the band sort of changes course about midway through the song thus allowing Daniel to offer up a groovy sounding bass composition. After all this ravenous rock and metal music you would not expect Unlucky Theta to drastically change course, but they decide to take a departure and add a really pleasant sounding acoustic song with Ariel taking over on vocals. The acoustic arrangement is extremely heavenly sounding and the entire production is simply flawless in my opinion. Overall, the song is an exceptional piece of music that demonstrates the diverse musical backgrounds of these musicians. 

    The album ends with the song, “The Monolith Falls,” and I truly believe that this was the perfect choice for the album’s last song. In the beginning of the song the band focuses on this trippy sludge like riff that evolves into a space odyssey of mind bending sounds. I thought the unconventional arrangements created such a unique atmosphere filled with hypnotic splendor and mesmerizing rhythms. 

    Unlucky Theta’s debut EP is a tremendous release from start to finish and contains a plethora of musical creativity. Now, there are bands who claim to be musically diverse and end up sounding like Yoko Ono on PCP, which is definitely not the case with Unlucky Theta. These guys are extremely talented musicians who really put thought into their recordings, so I highly recommend people check this EP out. Unlike those bands who are not extremely talented musicians and dress like ugly drag queens, Unlucky Theta is a band that is worth your time! 

Unlucky Theta bandcamp:

https://unluckytheta.bandcamp.com/

Unlucky Theta Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/unluckytheta

Pathetic "The Pestilence Born of Unclean Acts"

    Last month Pathetic released a hellacious concept album called, “Cleansing the Land of the Infidel,” and are now back with another insidious sounding extreme metal assault. Their new album, “The Pestilence Born of Unclean Acts,” takes listeners on an even more raw and primitive old school death journey into the nefarious minds of these Canadian extreme metal practitioners. 

    I was really impressed with, “Cleansing the Land of the Infidel,” because they built the entire album around the fall of the Ottoman Empire and composed some devastating tracks to compliment the album’s overall theme. Now some people might not be as into a historical themed death metal album as myself, but I think that musically there is no denying the band’s ability to write vivid cuts of old school sounding brutality. “The Pestilence Born of Unclean Acts,” definitely conveys a more straightforward style of old school sounding death metal and places an emphasis on unapologetic sounding tracks that do not waste an opportunity to send a cataclysmic shockwave across the metal community. 

    The album’s opening, “The Pestilence Born of Unclean Acts,” is a ruthless burst of vile sounding old school aggression. Guitarist Spencer Kraft unleashes a flurry of agonizing riffs and blistering lead guitar parts. Although he does not constantly showoff how fast he can move up and down the fretboard by doing pointless sweeps, Spencer has an aptitude for laying down some wicked sounding solos that compliment the chaotic landscape. Bassist Aj Kovar and drummer Duncan Chisholm also prove to be a formidable force when pertaining to their musicianship as well as their vocal contributions. The contrasting death growl styles from both musicians really stands out and gives this entire release an even more sinister element. 

    Songs like “Ashen Ascent,” “Traitors Harvest” and “Witchcraft Commandos” are all great examples of gruesome sounding death metal songs that definitely leave an impact on the listener. Pathetic has demonstrated with their last few releases that they do not mess around when constructing corpse ripping compositions. The band’s fiendish passion for extreme music is what really separates them from most of your current generic death metal worship bands. 

    The last two songs off of the release, “Abducted (Highway of Tears)” and “Darkness and Desolation," are just as destructive and brutal as the previous tracks. I personally really enjoyed, “Darkness and Desolation,” which begins with a very cold sounding atmosphere and haunting riff composition. The song also happens to be the longest song featured on the album, so you hear the band expanding their creative approach by coming up with some devastating dynamic arrangements. 

    In the end, Pathetic offers the underground metal community another barbaric assault of pure bone grinding death metal. I have covered this band for over a year now and I believe that they are moving in the right direction in terms of crafting monumental sounding death metal music. Hell, if they started incorporating smooth jazz into their music and dubstep, I probably would stop writing reviews for them. Luckily that is not the case with these guys, because Pathetic captures the true malevolent spirit of death metal that shall hopefully drive an axe into the skulls of all those garbage sounding experimental jazz dubstep hipster metal bands.  

Check out the entire release below:

https://pathetic666.bandcamp.com/

Also, here is a link to my review of “Cleansing the Land of the Infidel” as well as an interview with bassist/singer AJ Kovar :

https://rockandmetaltemple.blogspot.com/2020/08/pathetic-cleansing-land-of-infidel.html

https://rockandmetaltemple.blogspot.com/2020/08/interview-with-aj-kovar-patheticwitches.html

Invincible Force "Decomposed Sacramentum"

    Adding to an already monumental year for the world of extreme music, Invincible Force unleashes a sadistic assault of ear shattering blast beats and skull splitting riffs. Their sophomore full-length release, “Decomposed Sacramentum,” is a cyclone of sinister creativity that conveys a vicious and destructive nature. 

    These Chilean extreme metal musicians definitely want to contribute their brand of savage sounding music to what has already been such a strong year for extreme metal music. Invincible Force released their debut full-length album, “Satan Rebellion Metal,” back in 2015 and now five years later are looking to continue their diabolical extreme metal conquest. The band’s name is taken from a Destruction song, so you definitely hear that raw thrash style in their music. However, what I find stands out the most about this album is the relentless old school death metal attitude that drives the music mercilessly forward. If you like the first two Morbid Angel albums along with any band that was putting out pulverizing extreme metal around the late 80’s/early 90’s, then you are really going to want to check this album out. 

    The album contains nine tracks of pure hellish sounding extreme metal, all of which somehow never lose that intense and ferocious metal mindset. “Doomed by the Vision,” opens the album with a haunting introduction section that instantly explodes into a bombastic slaughter fest of blast beats, demonic vocals and leviathan sized guitar riffs. Instead of trying to grab listeners with overly complex compositions, the band focuses on maintaining a certain of level of aggression that heightens the song’s overall apocalyptic theme. On the next track, “Perpetual Black Mass,” the band throws down an unholy attack of straight forward brutality and keeps you hooked until the final note. 

    Throughout the entire album Invincible Force demonstrates that they are determined to offer listeners solid recordings that present sacrilegious themes with enough unholy malice to scare your local priest. The production on each track perfectly captures the band’s raw and venomous sound, as well as the tight bond between these musicians who all sound like they are very proficient players. Songs like, “The Shadow Over Canaan,” “Illusion of Truth,” and “Abufihamat,” are unbelievably impactful in terms of instrumental creativity. The guitar parts create an atmosphere of ritualistic damnation and the vocals add to the already satanic landscape by echoing over the chaos with a profound presentation. 

    I think that the last song I want to mention is, “Hopeless Mortality,” which I thought contained some of the most tormenting sounding guitar parts on the entire release. The song was definitely the perfect choice to have as the final track off of the album and really encapsulated the band’s unforgiving extreme creative vision.

    In the end, Invincible Force does not disappoint with, “Decomposed Sacramentum,” especially if you are looking for a band that plays with a tremendous amount of raw old school extreme metal passion. A lot of bands will tell you that they are old school sounding thrash, black and death metal bands, however, most of those bands fail to capture the true essence and need to think more about how their music sounds rather than their promo descriptions. Invincible Force is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the metal world and one that will hopefully be leading the charge into the future with more devastating releases. 

Check out the song "Perpetual Black Mass" below (Album is out October 22, 2020 through Dark Descent Records):

Invincible Force Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/Invincible666Force/

Dark Descent Website:

https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/

Countless Skies "Glow"

    In this modern metal world, I think listeners would like to see more bands taking their time to thoughtfully record an album instead of hammering out a release that shall be easily forgotten within a few months. The United Kingdom based band, Countless Skies, definitely did not squander the opportunity to record a profound release with their new album, “Glow.” I believe that this band’s strong conceptual music making talents will really resonate with people who enjoy melodic death metal.  

    “Glow,” is the band’s second full-length album to date and comes about four years after the release of their first full-length album, “New Dawn.” Their brand of melodic death metal is extremely refreshing and the compositions on this album are very well written. I think what listeners will notice about this album right away is the strong production value and dynamic songwriting style. Out of the seven tracks off of this release, the band never settles for simplistic derivative sounding arrangements.

    The opening song, “Tempest,” is a great piece of music to get listeners acquainted with the band’s style and artistic vision. I thought the guitar riffs on the opening song injected a lot of triumphant energy, yet also matched the emotional tone of the vocal parts. The band uses death growls as well as clean soaring melodic vocals to paint a vivid picture over the majestic sounding instrumental arrangements. This same approach continues on the second track, “Summit,” but you start to hear even more massive sounding guitar riffs come crashing through the landscape and setting up a blazing path for the band to explore further. 

    Track number three, “Moon,” starts out very calm and then bursts into a fearsome sounding guitar and drum arrangement that leads into an epic sounding chorus section. Once again, the band constructs these fluid compositions that are not choppy, or sound out of place. On the next song, “Zephyr,” I honestly believe that the band writes one of the most exceptional pieces music off of this album. The overall atmosphere sounds truly immaculate and the entire band pulls together their talents to record a track that listeners can find themselves drifting away into a cloud of endless harmonious sounding wonder. This track alone makes the album worth listen to and it made me realize how unbelievably talented these musicians are when pertaining to songwriting. 

    The last three tracks off of the album, “Glow part 1: Resolution,” “Glow part 2: Awakening” “Glow part 3: Reflection,” all take on their own distinct identity, however, they all share that same ambitious mentality. I liked the bass riff in the beginning of, “Glow part 1: Resolution,” because it gave the bass player a chance to add to the song’s soothing tone. The last the two tracks also feature a plethora of creative structures and the contrasting vocal styles really compliment the lyrical themes featured on both songs. 

    I think what impressed me most about this album was how Countless Skies continued to push themselves throughout the entire release. As the album progressed each track seemed to get better and better, yet when you look at the entire album you realize that the band did a stellar job writing an impressive tale from beginning to end. More bands need to adopt this mentality when writing albums, because instead of just focusing on a couple tracks, you want people reflecting back on the entire release. I look forward to the next musical epic that this band has to offer and I highly recommend people check out, "Glow." 

Check out the song "Summit" below (Album comes out November 6th, 2020 and is being released through Willowtip Records) :

Countless Skies FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/CountlessSkies

Willowtip Records website:

https://willowtip.com/home.aspx