Starer "Remorse Defines Me"

    Even though this new release from Starer only features three tracks, there is still plenty to take away from the immense sounding landscapes and captivating atmospheric elements. “Remorse Defines Me,” is another strong offering from this one-man atmospheric black metal project that has continued to demonstrate a passionate drive for composing majestic and haunting sounding pieces of music. 

    Starer’s approach on this EP is very similar to previous releases with its mixture of harsh sounding black metal and mesmerizing atmospheric touches. I would say that there is a balance of heaviness and melody, which I believe allows the listener to be lulled away into this fascinating world of endless possibilities. On each track you are able to hear an artist transcending the norms of what most people have come to expect from extreme music, however the experimentation is not done in a halfhearted manner and the music has the ability to appeal to wide range of music fans. 

    The first track, “Five Minutes Before Dawn,” is a great example of how Starer blends together these melancholy atmospheric keyboard arrangements with very harsh sounding chord progressions. As the distortion rings out over the haunting landscape, the vocals provide an even darker touch of chaotic ambience that continues to evolve with such sinister grace. At times the transitions can sound a bit choppy, but for the most part you feel as if the music is very compelling and the overall sound takes on this cinematic like vibe. 

     The second song on the EP, “Coiled Around the Sun,” picks up where the first track left off, but I felt as though that the guitar parts on this track conveyed a more aggressive sounding tone. Also, the fearsome sounding arrangement towards the end of the song definitely grabbed my attention as the music continued to march onwards with a thunderous edge. The last song on the EP, “The Flickering,” is an extremely emotionally charged piece of music with a  monumental rush of raw sounding atmospheric black metal. I thought that the layering of the keyboards was executed extreme well, especially in terms of how the keyboards complimented the guitar effects used in certain riff sections. 

    Anyone who is a fan of atmospheric black metal should check out this new EP by Starer, because the quality of the compositions and the intense emotional joyride on each track is rather impressive. Listeners will discover that once you start listening to this EP, you really do not wish to tear yourself away until the very end. I have always felt that when it comes to atmospheric black, artists should never settle for subpar sounding arrangements. So many musicians fail to recognize this and end up writing forgettable material. I believe that with each new release Starer continues to explore the thresholds of extreme musical creativity, and the dedication to writing dynamic sounding compositions really makes each new release worth checking out. 

Check out the song "Five Minutes Before Dawn" : 

Album comes out September 2nd and is available through Snow Wolf Records:

https://snowwolfrecords.bandcamp.com/

Exaltation “Under Blind Reasoning”

    New Zealand based death metal horde, Exaltation, conjure up a gruesome sounding onslaught of unapologetic brutality with the release of their debut full-length album, “Under Blind Reasoning.” Taking a plethora of elements from old school death metal, the band is able to record an album that sonically divides deep into the blackened abyss of inhuman extreme sounding chaos. 

    Working with Sentient Ruin on the release of the album, Exaltation is really looking to offer listeners a punishing extreme metal release from start to finish. If you are a fan of 90’s death metal then I think this album is going to be something that catches your attention right away. Similar to bands like Morbid Angel, Immolation, Deicide and Hate Eternal, once Exaltation starts unleashing their style of decimating sounding riffs and cataclysmic blast beats, you are instantly thrown into an oblivion of unfathomable destruction. I thought the recording quality was unbelievably solid and it definitely strengthens the band’s sinister lyrical concepts. 

     Out of the eight songs on the album, you will find that selecting a favorite is extremely difficult, because each track nails down the qualities of what one would hope to hear from a merciless sounding death metal release. The guitar and drum parts on the opening track, “Iron Rebellion,” come crashing down with tremendous force, thus creating a landscape of monumental devastation. I really enjoyed the drumming on this album and the second track, “Impending Deceased,” is a crash course in how one should go about recording drums on a death metal release. The drummer provides such raw force as well as an intense blitzkrieg of blast beats to accompany the agonizing riffs. 

    The band is also very dynamic when pertaining to their compositions, especially on tracks like, “Ascension” and “Impious Massacre.” I think, “Ascension,” captures the ruthless and unforgiving nature of 90’s Morbid Angel and the song sounds like a track that one might expect to have heard on an albums such as, “Formulas Fatal to the Flesh” or “Gateways to Annihilation.” Each track on the album seems to be recorded with a great amount of effort and attention to detail. For example, “Blaspheme Mortality,” is one track that features a surge of violent and sickening aggression to conjure up a haunting sounding dominion of brutal death metal. The demonic sounding vocals perfectly compliment the bone crushing instrumental arrangements as the band drags you further down an endless road of unspeakable carnage. 

    In the end, “Under Blind Reasoning,” is a death metal release that I highly recommend checking out if you are a fan of scorching and fearsome death metal. Exaltation is not some modern death metal act that waters down their sound by coming up with mundane sounding riffs and unnecessary breakdowns. I can honestly say that this is one death metal act which stays true to the blasphemous formula by laying down some juggernaut sized riffs for fans to immerse themselves in a sea of pestilent sounding death metal. The album comes out July 29th, so make sure to go order your copy from Sentient Ruin now! 

Check out the song "Ascension" below: 

Exaltation Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/exaltationnz/

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp:

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/under-blind-reasoning

Sentient Ruin Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/SentientRuin

The Lousy "Shut Up I’m Talking!!!!"

    Hardcore punk/thrash metal savages, The Lousy, simply don’t just demand your attention on their debut demo, “Shut Up I’m Talking!!!!,” they literally come charging at you with a baseball bat looking to unload an unapologetic beatdown upon your skull. 

    The Boston, MA based band’s debut demo tape sounds like the ultimate sadist and raw sounding concoction with its mixture of Motörhead, Cro-Mags, Cryptic Slaughter, Toxic Holocaust and DRI. This release instantly caught my attention and when Sentient Ruin announced that they would be releasing the demo on cassette July 15th, I right away wanted to know more about this band. From what I’ve read the members in the band seem to be very active amongst the Boston underground extreme music scene, and you can definitely tell when listening to this demo that the band has a tight overall sound and unbelievably malicious creative vision. 

    Each of the five tracks featured on this demo are recorded in such a vicious and uncompromising manner. Once the band cranks up the volume and tears into a hellacious sounding rhythm, there is no escaping the rebellious chaos that completely engulfs you. The band keeps it simple, yet very powerful when they start hammering out an arrangement like on the opening track, “Demons on Parade.” You are instantly greeted with a bombastic explosion of brain crushing distortion along with some agonizing vocals. This band’s singer really compliments the overall sound by delivering the lyrics with a tremendous amount of unforgiving and vile energy. 

    On the next two tracks, “Brain Saw” and “Murder Hammer,” the band continues to destroy all that stands in their path by dealing out more pestilent sounding hardcore punk/thrash riffs. You get this feeling that the band does not wish to deviate too far from their core sound and they seem to have this mentality where the music is all about expressing how disgusted they are with society. My favorite track off of the demo, “Live for Violence,” vividly captures the band’s destructive nature and features some savage guitar playing. I was extremely impressed by the guitarist’s tone as well as the lead parts that were thrown in at the right moments to give the music an extra boost of sadistic attitude. Also, I really liked the last song on the demo, “Shut Up I’m Talking!!!!,” because once again this group of musicians seems to just have a solid presence that does not yield, or conform to any expectations. In the end, The Lousy simply desires to turn up the volume on their amplifiers and create a decimating sounding landscape for listeners to completely lose their sanity. 

    Overall, I think that this is one of the strongest sounding demos I have heard all this year, and the band leaves me wanting more. If The Lousy plan on doing a full-length album, I can already envision them in the studio slashing through some more merciless hardcore punk/thrash compositions. In times like this when the world seems to be falling apart, you need an act like The Lousy to help you vent your frustrations by headbanging along to some ferocious sounding riffs. 

Check out the full demo below: 

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp:

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/

Sentient Ruin Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/SentientRuin

Anticreation "From the Dust of Embers"

    The amount of raw malevolent energy that can be heard on Anticreation’s debut album, “From the Dust of Embers,” is almost inconceivable at times, and you question whether or not this band is being guided by some dark spiritual entity. The mixture of vile sounding black metal and ruthless sounding old school death metal is what makes these Greek extreme metal musicians vividly standout. 

    The overall album is an utterly brutal assault of abhorrent creativity that marches to the beat of an insidious war drum looking to slaughter all which stands in this band's way. From start to finish the band demands your attention, and the arrangements are written with tremendous malice and keen extreme metal prowess. This shouldn’t come as a surprise that the band is working with Sentient Ruin on the release of this album, as the label always proves to be a great judge of extreme artistic talent. 

    If Anticreation was to have favored one style of extreme music on this release instead of having that strong balance, I do not believe the album would have caught my attention like it did. As much as you hear bands mixing black metal and old school death metal fairly often nowadays, you still find that some artists end up getting stuck in the repetitive cycle of writing very forgettable and generic extreme sounding compositions that lack a certain level of profound presentation. I believe an album's overall atmosphere and strong recording quality can really help a band achieve that extra edge over the usual modern extreme metal acts, and Anticreation seemed to have achieved that on this album. 

    The first track, “Faith’s Demystification,” reminded me of something that you would hear at the beginning of an occult themed horror film where you are left with this feeling that something terrifying is about to commence. I like how the track built up suspense and then out of no where comes a bombastic sounding guitar riff to setup up the next track, “From the Dust of Embers.” The band holds nothing back by unleashing a thunderstorm of sickening blackened death metal to overwhelm listeners with a sea of gruesome distortion. The third track, “The Beauty of Lava,” raises the brutality to another level and the singer provides some unbelievably monstrous vocal parts. This band definitely pays attention to when they want to slow things down to create an ominous sounding landscape, but they also recognize when to speed up the tempo to send listeners back into a chaotic instrumental firestorm of relentless aggression.  

    Throughout the rest of the album I found that the songwriting and musicianship always seemed to be extremely tight sounding, thus making for a strong overall listening experience. “A Journey Into the Throat of Death,” is one song that really impressed me and conveyed a very raw old school death metal sound, yet also utilized some very hellish sounding ambient noises. The band never seems to just slap together a song, and once they begin a track you are presented with this furious rush of unapologetic artistic expression until the distortion fades away. Plus, the drumming is out of this world at times like on the track, “Unborn,” which I thought featured some pulverizing blast beats. 

    I would say that Anticreation is a band that definitely compliments the Sentient Ruin roster quite well with their debut album, “From the Dust of Embers.” The band captures the pure hateful essence of unforgiving extreme metal music by composing tracks that exude true pestilence and disgust. Some bands can say that they despise humanity and that they are the baddest dudes around, but then when you hear their music they sound like a Dollar Store version of Morbid Angel. That is definitely not the case with Anticreation, because this band records music with a merciless passion to strike fear in the hearts and minds of all those who wish to defy their profound brutality. 

Check out the song "From the Dust of Embers" below (Also, album comes out July 8th with Sentient Ruin handling distribution for the Americas and Nuclear Winter Records handling the distribution for Europe): 

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp:

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/

Nuclear Winter Records (Europe) :

https://nuclearwinterrecords.bandcamp.com/