Concilium "Desecration"

   Crawling out of the wretched abyss comes a ritualistic offering of pure sickening brutality to present before the extreme music altar! Concilium’s debut release, “Desecration,” is an extremely raw sounding piece of black/death metal that also incorporates some agonizing doom elements. This Portuguese extreme metal band constructs some unbelievably insidious sounding atmospheres, while also leading listeners straight into a nightmare realm full of inhuman sounds. 

   Joining forces with Sentient Ruin Laborites, Concilium looks to unleash a tsunami of unfathomable chaos upon the metal world with their debut release. Musically, the band does not rely on overly technical compositions, or flashy guitar work to bog you down with random and excessive sounding riff progressions. Throughout the album Concilium presents solid sounding arrangements that are locked into this hellish vision, thus taking listeners on one hellish journey.   

   The album's low-fi and unforgiving occult like atmosphere succeeds in creating a merciless sounding musical landscape. On the open track, “From the Chalice,” the band introduces listeners to this massive bludgeoning of fiendish riffs and tormented sounding vocals. They do a solid job building up anticipation as the song progresses, which ultimately establishes their sacrilegious sounding dominion of pure evil. 

   On the following tracks like, “Shadow Gospels” and “From Emptiness to Oblivion,” the band continues to explore the dark confines of their abhorrent musical mindset, while also taking the music in a variety of haunting directions. “From Emptiness to Oblivion,” is a truly impressive arrangement that incorporates some mesmerizing guitar work to create a calming void like world that eventually succumbs to an explosion of raw ritualistic sounding instrumental chaos. 

   The drumming on the album is very primitive sounding and definitely adds to the band's bloodthirsty raw style by providing the right amount of brutal aggression. On the track, “Sacred Land of the Impure Blood,” you feel as though the world is crumbling around you and the entire arrangement is fueled by a barrage of skull crushing drum parts, inhumane vocals and ear piercing guitar riffs. The last song on the album, “Blood Candles,” is without question my favorite track and presents a more mind altering doom like atmosphere. Over the years I’ve notice that when recorded properly, the slower and extremely sludgy sounding arrangements always seems to leave the greatest impact. Plus, you become possessed by the simplistic rhythms that guide you through all the apocalyptic sounding decimation to reach that calming end when everything slowly fades away. 

   Once again, here is a band working Sentient Ruin that gets what it takes to record an impressive and engaging album from beginning to end. The haunting blend of extreme music styles and raw presentation made, “Desecration,” an extremely enjoyable listen. I welcome more bands like Concilium, because when done right and without all the over the top nonsense, you are given an extremely profound sounding listening experience. There is substance, which I find to be lacking in most modern music that tends to cause people to become mindless sheep. Put on some Concilium and they will awaken to a vivid reality of unholy desecration and ruthless sounding destruction! 

Listen to "From the Chalice" below: 

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp (Album comes out July 2, 2021):

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/desecration

Double Feature Review: Glyph and Reproach

     Get ready for a double album review featuring two brutal and devastating up and coming metal acts! Glyph and Reproach are two destructive sounding forces with their sights set on taking the metal world by storm.  

    I decided to do a double album feature since both bands are on the same label, Ritual Abuse Hysteria, which actually sent me a vicious sounding compilation just a couple months back. Glyph and Reproach were featured on that compilation and both bands contributed some wicked sounding songs on the compilation. Now with the opportunity to provide listeners their own full-length releases, Glyph and Reproach are able to demonstrate more extreme sounding tracks that build off of what they accomplished on the compilation release. 

    The first band I will be talking about is, Glyph, and their release, “We Are None of Us.” When first listening to Glyph you hear a lot of early European black metal influences mixed with some slight atmospheric black metal elements. The band constructs these depressive sounding atmospheres full of agonizing arrangements that capture the frozen shadowy essence of black metal. I hear a lot of similarities to that of the early Burzum releases, but I am also reminded of the calming melancholy approach that can be heard on the first Summoning release. The tracks blanket you in this frosty environment full of tormenting riffs and utterly raw sounding compositions. 

    The opening song from Glyph, “Of the Clock Tower,” is a ghastly track full of haunting chord progressions and sinister sounding vocals. I really enjoyed the song’s raw and abhorrent atmosphere that seems to be shrouded in a blanket of pure unforgiving darkness. “Corrupt That Which Will Be,” is another depressive and fierce sounding assault upon the ears with a feverish drum attack. The production quality on the album definitely compliments the band’s grim black metal vision rather perfectly. 

    Songs like, “The Folly of Vanity and the Doom of Folly,” and “…and So Fare the City,” remind me of early Emperor at times, because the band incorporates a lot of dynamic riff structures to create an environment full of tormenting transitions. I believe, “…and So Fare the City,” was the strongest track off of the album and one that was fueled by this unforgiving raw emotional drive. Overall, the music is written with such conviction and the harsh yet comforting dark sounding landscapes are extremely well recorded compared to some black metal releases that tend to end up sounding like a bunch of dorks decided to get together in an attempt do shitty Mayhem covers. 

    Alright, the next band I will be talking about is, Reproach, and their album, “The Book of Names.” Compared to Glyph, Reproach seems to draw more influence from old school death metal and war metal than raw black metal. I hear some Napalm Death influence at times and when I say Napalm Death, I am reminded more of the, “Harmony Corruption,” period. The riffs are very catchy at times, although they can instantly burst into a ferocious sounding bludgeoning of merciless sounding aggression. “Undo and Subvert,” is not the most technically challenging sounding piece of music, but has that bold and brutal presentation that captures essence of early Bolt Thrower and Benediction. 

    Throughout the album the band lays down plenty of monstrous sounding riffs and thunderous blast beats to hammer out some malevolent sounding compositions. “The Bones of Heathens,” is a crushing track and one that shows how brutal this can be once they get locked into a gruesome sounding riff structure. In all, Reproach is pretty straight forward in terms of their musical style, but at least they do not sound sloppy, or completely unimaginative. I really liked the band’s presentation and thought that their rancorous nature helped give the songs an extra boost of blasphemous attitude. 

    I think it is great that Ritual Abuse Hysteria working with both bands, because I find that each act has something special to offer the extreme metal world. I believe that these two bands have tons of potential and the recordings that they provided did not disappoint. Looking to the future I would like to see both bands continue to push themselves and stay true to their artistic visions. As the world continues to see mainstream music labels push more garbage onto the youth, we want more bands like Glyph and Reproach to be around so people can have recordings with substance available to them. 

Check out the song "...and So Fares the City" below:

Link to Ritual Abuse Hysteria Bandcamp:

https://ritualabusehysteria.bandcamp.com/

Dos Cobros "Misadventures in Dystopia"

    The new album from Dos Cobros, “Misadventures in Dystopia," is what I would call a rollercoaster through a dystopian cyberpunk themed world that has your head spinning and your mind constantly questioning all that you hear. Simply put, this is an album that I was not expecting to hear at first, but in the end it turned out to be something I'm glad came my way. 

    This two-man band based out of Nashville, Tennessee brings together an eclectic range of different musical elements. When listening to this album you can hear some industrial metal/rock, punk, hip-hop, as well as some cinematic elements. Right off the bat the opening song, “Initiation (A Space Wolf Tale),” throws you into a volatile sea of industrial sounding metal that contains a massive amount of adrenaline pumping force. There are plenty of slamming industrial arrangements that also blend into this hallucinogenic atmosphere of catchy sounding electronic noises. 

    On the next song, “No Hope (A Black Philip Tale),” the band delivers a strong hip-hop and industrial sounding piece of music. I was extremely impressed by the delivery of the lyrics and thought that the singer did a tremendous job added an extra boost of aggressive energy into the composition. Just imagine if Nine Inch Nails or My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult were working in the studio and Cypress Hill decided to stop by to lay down some lyrics. Honestly, the industrial rock/metal instrumental arrangements matched with this unapologetic no holds barred style of hip-hop is very profound and does not sound cheap, or gimmicky. Another band they remind me a bit of is the Butthole Surfers, but with a more industrial flavor added into the mix. 

    Also, I really like the horror movie references in their songs like, “No Hope (A Black Philip Tale,” as well as the track, “The Perfect Game (A Slender Man Tale).” The loudly distorted main guitar riff matched with the no nonsense sounding rhythms provided a fierce background for the singer to come in and unleash his tale of blasphemous terror. Overall, the song is a great example of solid production that all fits together flawlessly. Throughout the album you hear that this group is able to put everything together in such a solid fashion, which is impressive given the diverse sounding elements. “Ubuntu (Insomnia Mix),” was a song that at first sounded very chaotic and overwhelming with a hornets nest of industrial sounds, but eventually mellowed out to once again offer up a solid vocal performance and unique sounding musical landscape. 

    At first I did not know how I was going to like this album, because I am not exactly the biggest hip-hop fan on the planet. However, when listening to this album from top to bottom, I felt that the variety of influences actually allowed Dos Cobros to have a great amount of creative freedom. Again, the production on,“Misadventures in Dystopia,” is what really stood out and each track delivers in terms of recording quality. Dos Cobros is a band that I highly recommend checking out, especially if you are a listener who has an open mind. I’ve reviewed a handful of bands that incorporate a variety of styles into their sound and usually they end up sounding like a choir of feces throwing chimpanzees, so Dos Cobros is a talented group that definitely deserves recognition for their work on this album. 

Check out the song "Ubuntu (Insomnia Mix)" below:

Dos Cobros Bandcamp (Album comes out July 17th):

https://doscobros.bandcamp.com/album/misadventures-in-dystopia