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:
Robby, always enjoy your reviews.
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