Well everyone, 2025 was a totally nutty year with plenty of moments that made me just wanted to throw my hands up the in air and scream, "Get me the hell off of this crazy planet!" From the constant talk about AI taking over to my city becoming insanely overdeveloped to where every single piece of land is being used to build overpriced condos that like look something out of a George Orwell novel, 2025 really felt like massive pile of feces floating in a toilet. Luckily music seemed to be the best medicine, as there were some extremely strong releases that came out this year. Also, the future of the Bay Area underground metal scene looks very promising with bands like Cardinal, Bezaliel and Varulf leading the way. Plus, Sentient Ruin showed up by continuing to release more uncompromising extreme metal albums this year. Although I must give Hells Headbangers major credit for the work that they did this year whether it be new releases, or re-issues of extreme metal classics like the Goreaphobia picture disc. In the end, 2025 may not have been a cake walk of a year, but then again, when is life ever completely without chaos...Alright enough rambling like a washed-up pro-wrestler from the 80's doing a shoot interview, here are my top ten albums from 2025...
10. Gawthrop - “Kuboa”
This South Korean sludge act sure unleashed a gruesome sounding album with the release of “Kuboa.” Definitely could hear influences like Noothgrush and Grief which is probably what drew me to the album right away after hearing the first preview song. Glad to see Sentient Ruin was the label working with the band for the album’s release as Gawthrop perfectly compliments the label’s diabolical and unapologetic extreme ethos. There are plenty of agonizing slow crushing riffs throughout the album painting a bleak and dystopian landscape where piles of bones lay across a desolate wasteland.
9. Prophetic Suffering - “Rivalry of Thyself”
The bestial death metal horde from Canada known as Prophetic Suffering unleashed a sickening decibel defiling onslaught with the release of "Rivalry of Thyself." From start to finish this album was utterly devastating and featured some savage guitar work to go along with the cataclysmic drumming. These sadistic maniacs don't experiment or try to go off the extreme metal script, which is why the album comes across as an unforgivingly raw and brutal assault without any remorse. Definitely a band to keep an eye on if you are a fan of monstrous sounding death metal.
8. Phantom - “Tyrants Wrath”
The maniac thrashers from Mexico are an insanely relentless force and have gained a solid international following over the years. I personally really enjoyed their debut album, “Handed to Execution,” a lot when I first heard that album. “Tyrants of Wrath,” is another solid release that features more merciless old school speed/thrash riffs, but even has more classic melodic metal touches which draws influence from the NWOBHM and early 80’s speed metal. Still, they know how to bring the intensity when it comes to heavy sounding palm muted riffs that can conjure up a mosh pit within seconds. Plus, they seem to be working extremely hard as I see them constantly sharing videos of their wicked live shows.
7. Perdition Temple "Malign Apotheosis"
The new album from Perdition Temple was definitely a strong extreme release to come out towards the end of this year. For their fifth full-length album the band yet again demonstrated their vicious talents by hammering out some juggernaut sized death metal riffs. The album really invokes that old school sound which is great given how modern death has really become sterile sounding and seems to have lost that pestilent vibe that you heard coming out in the late 80's and early 90's. Perdition Temple knows how to come up with vile sounding tracks like "Kingdoms of the Bloodstained" and "Death Insurrection" to give the listener a chaotically deafening listening experience.
6. Moonlight Haze - “Beyond”
The epic power metal outfit known as Moonlight Haze once again created a truly impressive release. I tend to be extremely picky with my power metal as I have found the sub-genre to be getting a bit gimmicky with too many bands starting to become very forgettable. However, Moonlight Haze knows how to construct these triumphant sounding compositions to grab your attention. Also, the band’s singer has an amazing voice along with a tremendous vocal range. In think if you are into power metal then Moonlight Haze is a band to be checking out and I hope they come to the US for a tour.
5. Matt Lasserre - “Jungian House Dreams”
The mastermind behind Pale Cremation never seems to slow down and continues to create some killer releases. His new solo album that came out this year was a bit of a departure from his more doom and hard rock past, but he still found a way to captive listeners with some really impressive prog rock/post-punk influenced compositions. “Jungian House Dreams,” contains some ethereal synth arrangements, which gives the release a very dreamlike quality. Matt recorded plenty of fascinating compositions on this album that mixed all these different types of musical influences of his to make a very creative release. Having known Matt since his days playing bass in the band Scrape the Earth, I've really come to respect how much work he has put in over the years recording new music and furthering to explore his various musical interests.
4. Uranium - “Corrosion of Existence”
Probably one of the most insane and down right mind altering extreme albums to come out this year. The one-man blackened industrial act behind Uranium has been conjuring up some real radioactively decimating releases in recent years with this one being surrealistically brutal from start to finish. Uranium combines all the abhorrent musical elements together to offer listener's a glimpse into an apocalyptic nightmare where humanity has become devastated by nuclear destruction. Sentient Ruin also did a great job with the album's release by offering a cool vinyl variant as well as printing some badass shirts/hoodies/long sleeve shirts (Still some available on Sentient Ruin's website).
3. Demonsmoke - “Resin Wrought”
Demonsmoke’s second full-length album and the follow-up to their monumental 2017 debut album “Morphine Moonshine,”is without question one of the heaviest albums that came out this year. The band increases the vile sludge and doom dose to an even more diabolically sinister level with “Resin Wrought.” The riffs on this album are vicious while the vocals add a venomous touch of pure unapologetic disgust. Definitely draws influence from Southern sludge metal, but has such a profoundly dark doom vibe that hooks you from the first suffocatingly distorted riff. Also, shoutout to the artist who did the album cover as it perfectly compliments the band's primordial demonically doom like sound.
2. Lathe of Heaven - “Aurora”
Lathe of Heaven's sophomore full-length album "Aurora" had to be one of the album's I was most looking forward to in 2025. The band's debut album "Bound by Naked Skies" is one of my favorite albums to be released within the last few and I still listen to it quite frequently. "Aurora," is a tremendous follow-up that shows the band's growth as songwriters, as well as their ability to compose these haunting and fierce post-punk atmospheres. The lyrical content is inspired by science fiction along with other topics that are extremely relatable to the current state of our world. I personally think Gage Allison is one of the best singers currently in the world of rock/punk/metal music, and he always seems to delivers the lyrics with such profound conviction to where you remember every word. "Just Beyond the Reach of Light," is a powerful song that I would consider to be the best song off of the album.
1. The Chameleons - “Arctic Moon”
I can already hear the elitist extreme metal fans reading this number one pick and saying, "You're number one pick is yet again a non-metal band?!" Well in the end, I am unapologetic about what I enjoy and in my opinion the best album to come out in 2025 was The Chameleons "Arctic Moon." For those not familiar with The Chameleons, they are a tremendously talented post-punk/new wave act from the 80's that I strongly believe deserves more credit for their work. The band's first three albums are utterly phenomenal and even though they did not sell millions of records, I believe they have established a profoundly loyal cult following that deeply treasures the band's recordings. "Arctic Moon" is a bit of a comeback album since they had not put out a new album since 2001. Even after all those years of not making new material, the band did not seem to miss a beat as the new song's a truly astonishing. Reg Smithies is a brilliant guitarist who constructs these mesmerizing landscapes featuring some very tranquil sounding guitar compositions. The song on the album that steals the show is "David Bowie Takes my Hand," which contains some powerful lyrical moments along with these very inspiring dynamic arrangements. Even if you are not a fan of this style of music, I really do recommend checking this album out given how well music was recorded and how meaningful the lyrics come across.
The Rob “The Metal Guy” Awards
EP of the Year: Samiarus “Reign Destroyer”
Best Live Performance of the Year: The Chameleons in Roseville, CA
Most Brutal Album Cover of the Year: Demonsmoke “Resin Wrought”
Label of the Year: Hells Headbangers (The Goreaphobia picture disc turned out great! So glad I ordered it!).
Up and Coming Artist of the Year: Cardinal (A black metal band that is extremely talented and hopefully working on a full-length album).
Intercontinental Metal Champions: Empty Chalice (Created this new category for bands who come to the Bay Area from another country and put on a killer show, which Empty Chalice did on May 31st of this year).
Sometimes you don’t need a plethora of technical riffs and complex arrangements to make a profoundly compelling extreme release. The debut self-titled demo from Cathexis is a prime example of how taking savage crust punk mixed with some ruthless sounding metal elements can lead to a ferocious listening experience.
Cathexis is a one-man project that recently put out this debut demo on cassette via RoachLeg Records. The demo is a conjuring of raw punk elements that reminds me a bit of gritty old school crust acts like Amebix and Extreme Noise Terror, but then you also have this deafening primitive metal side that I thought sounded a almost like the early Hellhammer demos. Overall, the music is utterly intense and comes rushing out of the speakers with this supercharged level of adrenaline pumping distorted energy. The vocals paint these haunting and bleak dystopian scenarios as the riffs thunderously chug away. Throughout demo I felt that the music was very consistent sounding, yet the tracks never come across as painfully repetitive, which I would attribute to the feverishly relentless raw energy.
There are four songs featured on the demo, and all of them are merciless sounding cuts of unapologetic chaos. Upon hearing the opening drum part on the song, “Revulsion,” as well as the guitar chords cutting through the rhythms with such malice, I knew instantly that I was going to be thrown into a maelstrom of ruthless punk/metal aggression. Also, the vocals during the song perfectly match the bellicose sounding instrumental compositions, thus creating a very hostile sounding nightmarish landscape. On the second track, “Xenogenesis,” the mastermind behind this project known as the, Neuromancer, continues to offer up these blistering rudimentary thrash/punk riffs that evoke an old school sound that I feel you hear rarely expressed these days on most modern records. Sometimes over produced releases can take away from what the artist is trying to express, so I'm glad that this demo found a way to preserve the anarchistic and chaotic musical mentality.
The third track, “Nightfall,” was a very unique sounding track that featured some sharp sounding chord strikes as well as these science-fiction like noises towards the end. I liked the creativity that went into this track, as the overall recording definitely stood out from the previous two. The final song, “Deadly Reign,” was an utterly abrasive conclusion to an already decimating demo. This track definitely contained some fearsome headbanging riffs and the rough production made for a killer old school sounding extreme piece of music.
After listening to this demo from Cathexis, I am eager to hear more given what was presented on each of the four tracks. The raw and unyielding energy that was displayed on this demo can definitely be used to fuel the flames of a future release, so I look forward to that potential creation. To me there are a ton of riffs and musical ideas that can be explored further, which is something most artists should strive for when creating a demo, as it can serve as the beginning of more complete musical vision. In the end, I highly recommend checking out this demo and keeping an eye out for more music from Cathexis.
Check out the full demo below from the Felopunk Youtube Channel:
As the year 2024 comes to an end and we are all left wondering how in the world did people like The Costco Guys and Hawk Tuah Girl get famous along with all the other whacky shit that happened in 2024, it is time to look back on all the great music that came out this year. I felt that 2024 was a solid year overall in terms of new hard rock and metal releases, the battle for the number one spot was not as competitive as it has been in prior years. Sentient Ruin once again dominated in terms of underground extreme music labels, and the owner of the label does not need to run a Youtube Channel complaining like a toddler when bands are unwilling to do interviews with him like some other labels (cough...J-Dawg). Now, in regards to my pick for the number one album of the year, I am already expecting the self-proclaimed "true" metal readers to start calling me a poser as well as begin a petition to revoke my "Metal Guy" status. Honestly, just get over it and accept the fact that the best album of the year wasn't some obscure kvlt band that wears Party City vampire capes, or is a tech death band writing songs about aliens installing solar panels on The Great Pyramids. Just like how those cackling hens on The View had to accept the results of the Orange Man's victory, the metal community can chill out for one year as I give the number one spot to a non-metal band. Alright, enough of my blabbering, here is the list for my Top Ten Albums of 2024, plus the Rob "The Metal Guy" Awards at the end...
10. Örnatorpet “Fordomdags”
This just wouldn’t be a top ten list if a dungeon synth/ambient artist was not featured. As someone who has been a massive fan of dungeon synth music over the years, I always seem to come across some very creative artists. Örnatorpet is a Swedish artist who has really created some gems over the years, and this latest album “Fordomdags,” being yet another captivating dungeon synth tale. I like the Scandinavian folk elements that are sprinkled throughout the release, as well as the soothing melodies and bewitching synths. Even without words you can paint these vivid landscapes in your head while following along to the captivating noises. I highly recommend checking the album out if you enjoy dungeon synth and ambient music similar to that of Secret Stairways and Jim Kirkwood.
9. Low Moments “Escape Artist/Ship Has Sailed”
I just don’t think the world could have endured if we did not get another new Low Moment’s release and this new one that came out in 2024 was one that easily could have been nominated for a Grammy if only there was a way to payoff the officials like in the NFL. Actually, the music on this release is extremely catchy and the lyrics can be very relatable, which sometimes is scary if you really think about it. I would say that if you are a fan of gloomy post-punk then you will definitely want to listen to this album, as Low Moments just seems to fill that void which is missing in the music world today. Also, they sure do provide great background music for when you walk around the mall by yourself dressed all in black eating taiyaki and pondering as to why life keeps kicking you in the balls.
8. Bütcher “On Fowl of Tyrant Wing”
I found out about this Belgium based speed metal/back metal band through an awesome friend who knows a thing or two about killer metal music. Bütcher’s latest release “On Fowl of Tyrant Wing” is down right badass from the album cover to the music. The album features a plethora of blistering riffs and skull crushing rhythms. Once you start listening to it, you cannot stop! This is definitely a band that I would like to see live one day, especially given the punishing and brutal energy that they were able to conjure up on this album.
7. Deicide “Banished by Sin”
When it comes to older bands that are considered iconic and influential in the world of metal music, I personally feel as though some of them have really put out some sterile and overproduced sounding releases. Without sounding too harsh, I personally believe there are a handful of acts that just need to hang it up. In the case of Deicide, I definitely find that they have been consistent over the years and this new album “Banished by Sin” actually surprised me. Glen and the boys delivered a truly crushing death metal album featuring some down right brutal riffs. I would say that this album by far surpasses the last two albums, which I thought were just very average sounding releases. Songs like “Bury the Cross... with Your Christ,” “Woke from God” and “The Light Defeated” feature killer lyrics mocking religion, while showing that these guy still know how to pump out utterly agonizing extreme death metal compositions.
6. Maudissez “Self-Titled Album”
This debut self-titled album from sinister extreme metal maniacs, Maudissez, was sure one hellish listening experience. I thought this album was sonically decimating from the very start. It came as no surprise when I found out the that the band was working with Sentient Ruin on the release of the album. This group definitely fits in well with all the other bands on Sentient Ruin, especially considering the band’s haunting and profane musical identity. A lot of metal bands can dress-up and act evil with their chains and upside down crosses, but few can actually deliver an utterly malevolent sounding creation. Maudissez is a band that I would keep an eye out for in the future, as they are extremely talented when it comes to crafting long blasphemous sounding tracks with very terrifying atmospheres.
5. Hemotoxin “When Time Becomes Loss”
A local Bay Area band that I have been following ever since seeing them live in 2013, Hemotoxin continues to push the technical thresholds with each new release. Guitarist/singer Michael Chavez is an unbelievably talented player who has also really evolved as a songwriter. “When Time Becomes Loss” takes a step into a more progressive direction, while still conveying a vicious old school death metal and technical thrash feel at times. I thought the album contained some very profound tracks with my favorite being, “Reborn in Tragedy.” Also, for the album Michael brought in a few talented guitarists to provide guest solos and give the music an even more blistering dynamic sound as well.
4. Diabolic Oath “Oracular Hexations”
The savage blackened death metal horde known as Diabolic Oath once gain delivered a punishing full-length album to follow-up what was a very impressive debut album. This sophomore release, ““Oracular Hexations,” demonstrates the band’s savage nature, as well as their insane musicianship. From the apocalyptic blast beats and abhorrent riff structures, to the inhuman death growls, Diabolic Oath knows how to arrange some vicious tracks. Yet another band on Sentient Ruin which demonstrated tremendous extreme creativity to unleash upon the metal world an unfathomably deafening assault.
3. Aberration “Refracture”
Ever since I reviewed Aberration’s first EP for Sentient Ruin back around 2021, I had been looking forward to hearing them come-up with a full-length release. The band’s sound takes on an old school death metal approach, but also incorporates some sonically defiling noises to create insidious atmospheres. There are a lot of dynamic and dissonant riff structures, which keeps you listening intently as the music viciously evolves. Aberration was determined to leave an impact with the release of this album, and I definitely think they accomplished their goal to create a purely evil sounding release.
2. Nekus "Death Apophenia”
On their sophomore full-length release, "Death Apophenia,” Nekus once again unleashes a leviathan sized helping of death doom to shatter your ears and drag you mercilessly into the gruesomely distorted dark depths. The riffs on this album sound unbelievably deafening with monstrous amounts of reverb to send shockwaves across the musical landscapes with unapologetic force. Also, the thunderous drumming stands out as everything about this album evokes such a cataclysmic feel, which is why I really think this album is one of the best sounding extreme metal releases to come out in 2024. Nekus does not need to mindlessly shred through random scales to capture the listener’s attention. The band’s surrealistically profound delivery hooks you from start to finish by hitting you square in the gut.
1. The Cure “Songs of a Lost World”
When I first heard that The Cure was going to be releasing a new album, I was not freaking out like most diehard fans, but I was interested to hear how it would sound. Although the album is not hard rock or metal, I made the decision to add it to this list because the album's overall production is phenomenal. From the opening song with its mesmerizing chords to the final track which hits you with a tremendous amount of profound emotional force, this album is just sonically impressive. Robert Smith sounds amazing as well compared to a lot of singers his age who have started to sound like utter trash and should check themselves into he retirement home (Morrissey being one of them!). I know a lot of my hardcore metal fanatic readers are going to scream poser when they read this, but all I can say to them is to get over it and acknowledge that even if you do not like The Cure, at least respect the quality of what this band was able to accomplish. The Cure could have easily just dialed it in and wrote an album full of gimmicky tracks that are cheap copies of previous material. However, “Songs of a Lost World,” actually takes elements from the band’s early years, but somehow ventures into even more grandiose post-punk atmospheric directions. Something that I think all bands young and old can learn from this new album from The Cure is that taking your time to compose a complete and profound listen experience is definitely important, and leaves an impression on your listeners more than a band cranking out albums mindlessly year after year which all sound the same to where why spending money when the music becomes utterly forgettable.
The Rob “The Metal Guy” Awards
Label of the Year: Sentient Ruin
Best Live Performance: The Mission in San Jose at the Ritz and Kreator in SF at The Warfield for Klash of the Titans (Both get the award because both were amazing!)
EP of the Year: Cemetery Filth “Senses of Detriment”
Album Cover of the Year: Cemetery Filth “Senses of Detriment”
Music Video of the Year: VOID - “Return of the Phantom”
Music Venue of the Year: Brentwood Emporium
Best Punk Releases of the Year: Dollhouse - “I Hate You, Don’t Leave Me” and Yellowcake "A Fragmented Truth"
Most Badass Wrestler of the Year: Stephanie Vaquer
Biggest Douches of the Year: Taylor Swift, The Women on The View, and Dave Meltzer
Rising from the macabre crypts and misty shadows of the Chilean underground metal scene comes an act that brings listeners back to time when heavy metal was on the rise and parents feared their kids would become possessed by Satan if they listened to metal music. Shadows definitely captures the spirit and sound of bands such as Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest and Death SS by coming up with some very epic instrumental jams to accompany the extremely cinematic horror themed lyrics.
The main songwriter and diabolical mastermind behind Shadows is, John Shades, a pseudonym for Cristian Silva who is known for this work in the Chilean thrash/black metal band Apostasy. In recent years there has been a truly significant number of metal bands drawing influence from NWOBHM and classic metal of the early 80’s. A decent number of new artists have composed some unbelievably impressive sounding releases, which propels the genre forward instead of making fans feel like they are hearing blatant ripoffs that will be forgotten after just one listen. The songwriting on this debut album from Shadows is what I feel makes this album instantly stands out, because the music really hooks you from the opening of the release until the very end.
Out of the ten tracks featured on the album, I believe listeners will not be disappointed once they beginning listening to the album. The production and recording quality definitely brings these tracks to life, thus giving the album a strong dark melodic old school heavy metal edge. Some of the tracks on the album I’ve actually listened to before since they were featured on the band’s 2021 EP, “Into the Nightmare.” The opening song,”Nightstalker,” is one of those songs from the first EP which I really enjoyed and liked having as the first song on this full-length release. From the track’s eerie horror movie like intro with the haunting acoustic arrangement to the hard hitting main guitar riff that captures your attention right away, the entire composition exudes a certain amount of raw classic metal energy. The album also features a decent amount of keyboard parts as well as these wicked sounding guitar solos, so if you are a fan of Mercyful Fate then songs on this album such as, “Sacrifice” and “Forgotten Rites,” will grab your attention right away.
One area of this album that I also enjoyed and thought helped to highlight the conceptional aspects featured on this album, was John Shade’s vocal delivery along with how he arranged the chorus sections. The lyrics are truly fascinating by exploring these sinister themes, while being presented to the listener in such a clever and memorable way. Tracks like, “Maniac,” have you completely mesmerized by the chorus section, while you feverishly bang your head along to the catchy riffs. “Fullmoon,” is track that perfectly complemented the album’s spooky theme with its solemn sounding piano composition and these mournful sounding cries as if a tortured soul from beyond is crying out from the abyss. Even the final song, “Alissa,” keeps you fully engaged as the thunderous sounding instrumental compositions possess your ears and drag you into this utterly bombastic sounding heavy metal realm.
When looking back at this entire album, I feel that Shadows offered up an all around exceptional sounding release. Working with Sentient Ruin on the release of, “Out for Blood,” I do see Shadows bringing together a wide range of hard rock and metal fans, because this album conveys a plethora of great sounding heavy metal arrangements. The songs are extremely well written and I do feel that a fair amount of young bands these days spend more time trying to play fast rather than write tight and memorable pieces of music. Again, this is an album that I highly recommend checking out, especially if you are looking for that balance of heaviness and melody, as well as some ghastly sounding lyrical content to scare the people around your community.
Check out the song "Maniac" below (Album comes out May 19, 2023) :
Whether it be the band’s passionate classic old school heavy metal and hard rock style, or their relentless touring schedule which has taken them all around the world, Night Demon is a band that continues to confidently thrive by charging ahead at full speed. The band’s third full-length album, “Outsider,” is without question an album that sent the fanatical Night Demon fanbase into a frenzy upon hearing the news about a new album to follow-up, “Darkness Remains,” which was released back in 2017.
Although the band waited almost six years to put out their next full-length album, during that period they sure as hell were not kicking back and lazing around. The band embarked on constant tours and put out a live album as well as a compilation album featuring numerous new singles and covers called, “Year of the Demon.” Of course during the early years of the pandemic Night Demon like so may bands had to cut back on touring for a period time, but that did not stop the band from finding ways to connect with their fans and the band’s podcast series has provided fans with a tremendous amount of insight into the band’s history along with stories pertaining to how band approaches recording songs.
“Outsider,” is yet another chapter in the Night Demon story which has continued to thrive ever since their first self-titled debut four song EP. This current line-up with Jarvis Leatherby on bass/vocals, Armand John Anthony on guitar and Dusty Squires behind the drum kit, has proven to be an utterly strong heavy metal power trio. I would say that the band’s first album, "Curse of the Damned," is definitely more raw and fearsome, while “Darkness Remains,” showed a slight different side at times by putting great focus into the songwriting aspects as well as the production. Jarvis Leatherby is a tremendous lyricist who draws influence from NWOBHM and classic hard rock by crafting these profound stories where the chorus stays in your head and the words leave such an impact.
“Outsider,” might be the band’s most ambitious and unique album to date due to the fact that this is a concept album from start to finish. On previous Night Demon releases like, “Curse of the Damned,” there were songs which complimented each other and featured very vivid conceptual themes, but never did the band write a complete concept album. “Outsider,” brings together the supernatural world with an individuals thoughts and feelings that profoundly ties into what some people might experience in their day to day lives. During the pandemic Jarvis was staying in Northern Ireland and at times when listening to the album I can hear where having to deal with the isolation and feeling exiled around that period of time might have greatly influenced his songwriting for this album.
Lyrically, I really enjoy the title track off of this album and find the words to be extremely relatable. Night Demon’s sound has not drastically changed, except there are time when. you can hear some subtle adjustments. There is definitely more emphasis placed on coming up with catchy hooks to create very addictive sounding rhythms, but you there is a moment during the title track where the music slows down and creates a more doom like atmosphere. The song, “Outsider,” is a very dynamic track that I believe can appeal to wide range of rock and metal fans given the creative riffs and adrenaline pumping rhythms.
Another track off of the album that contains a plethora of epic compositions is the last song, “The Wrath.” From the melodic guitar and bass parts to the thunderous cymbal crashes, the song is a monumental sounding finale. Jarvis delivers the lyrics with such raw aggression to help bring to life the chaos that is conjured up by the instrumental parts. As the notes solemnly ring out and fade into the dark abyss, you stop and reflect upon the emotional journey feeling almost at ease as the music fades away. Also, I could not believe how the time flew by so quickly when listening to the album, because it really hooks you right from the beginning and you lose track of time as if you are stepping into another realm created by Night Demon.
In the end, Night Demon came up with a very creative third album and I do think that they found a way to step outside the box on this release. Even though this album might not feature the same hungry and ravenous energy which you can hear on early Night Demon recordings, the band demonstrates how they have become even more accomplished as songwriters by constructing a truly fascinating concept album. A concept album can be extremely hard for some fans to accept if a band has not done one before, so I strongly recommend listening to the entire album more than once before forming an opinion. Overall, this album is highly worth check out and in a perfect world would win a Metal Grammy if the people over at the Grammy Awards actually pulled their heads out of their rears.
Check out the video for the song "Outsider" below:
After releasing their debut studio album back in 2016, the New York City based band known as Tower returns with one fearsome sounding release. The band holds nothing back and unleashes a thunderous heavy metal onslaught on their sophomore release, “Shock to the System.”
This band has a massive amount of raw and ruthless classic metal energy, which also conveys that no-nonsense rock and roll attitude. I hear a variety of influences ranging from hard rock to NWOBHM, but in the end this band is able to hammer out a sound that really comes rushing through the speakers with a confident and ballsy attitude. The twin guitar attack of guitarists James Danzo and Zak Penley is on full display throughout the album, especially when pertaining to the feverish sounding chord progressions and skillful lead guitar work. Also, the high soaring and confident vocals provided by the band’s singer, Sarabeth Linden, offer up a monumental boost of raw energy into the tracks.
Songwriting is always something I pay attention to when reviewing albums and bands that fail to compose strong and engaging songs usually lose me after the first couple tracks. In the case of Tower, this band is able to produce a solid sound that even though has been done numerous times before, definitely conveys a strong hard rock and heavy metal vision. For example, the opening track, “Blood Moon,” is a slamming piece of headbanging aggression. Drummer James Jones kicks things off by laying down some crushing rhythms that are followed up by a flurry of ear shattering riffs and powerful vocals.
The second track, “Prince of Darkness,” continues the loud and bombastic onslaught with a slightly slower tempo, while also being fueled by Sarabeth's passionate earth shaking vocals. On the third song, “Metatron,” the band arranges an instrumental composition featuring a variety of creative tempo changes and some blistering lead guitar playing. The lead parts are very precise, yet have that killer raw sound which never ends by sounding like a tsunami of random notes saturating the song and causing listeners to feel overwhelmed.
Probably what stood out the most on this album was how tight the band sounded, especially when considering that I've come across countless bands who play this style of music. Songs like, “Running Out of Time,” “Hired Gun” and “The Black Rose,” turn up the heat by demonstrating countless moments of catchy guitar parts along with very memorable chorus section. However, the song on this album that I believe stole the show had to be, “In Dreams.” The band draws some influence from eighties hard rock and heavy metal by crafting some epic sounding melodies. Add in some triumphant guitar riffs and earth shaking vocals that stretch across the landscape with tremendous force, and you end up getting one brilliant piece of music.
From top to bottom, “Shock to the System,” is a scorching release that comes charging at the global metal community with a relentless and wild heavy metal passion. The all around musicianship is really impressive, however the band’s songwriting talents along with their take no prisoners hard rocking mentality, is what I believe can help them stand out as they continue their ascent in the world of rock/metal. After a year of lockdowns and domestic insanity, Tower is coming out swinging with no remorse on this new album, so do not pass it up!
The spirit of hurricane sized guitar riffs and hard hitting cuts of glass shattering rock 'n' roll lives on through the music of Cobra Cobra! This band knows a thing or two about laying down some killer sounding hard rock/heavy metal riffs for listeners to sink their teeth right into. The band's debut album, "Life After Poison," is a tremendous display of passionate rock and metal fury that comes bursting out onto the scene like a renegade hammerhead shark going in for the kill. I caught up with the band's guitarist Derek Reeder to discuss the new album and some other topics of interest. Check out the full interview below:
Hello Derek! Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. With the recent release of Cobra Cobra’s debut album“Life After Poison” how has the feedback been so far? How pleased are you with the album’s overall sound?
Derek: Hey man! back atcha! Feedback regarding our debut Cobra Cobra album “Life After Poison” has been pretty rock solid I must admit. It's almost to the point of where, for example, when I ask someone about it their response is “there are no bad songs, every song is good”, that it’s kinda becoming just a cop out at this point LOL! But I find the more specific the listener gets the better the feedback is, as you know. Maybe I should ask, what’s your favorite guitar solo on the album, or whats your favorite most “well produced song", if you could point to one, etc. Did you like a chorus on a certain song? Did the lyrics touch you in any way? How about all the “hey’s” in our gang vocals LOL! We love to talk about this stuff all day long!
In terms of the production of the album, I’m pretty pleased to be honest. I love huge sounding albums that sound expensive. But let’s face it, we don’t live in the glory days of the 250k album budgets. If we did, it would be a night and day difference, and better overall from what we have now. When you think about it, what we had to play with budget wise was probably about the same amount as one of those expensive lunch’s for one of those older artists enjoying the huge record company budget back in the day, LOL. But that being said it’s very important for me to have a really prominent drum sound, specifically at the minimum a pounding kick drum and heavy toms. Even though I’m a guitarist, and that's my main instrument, 90% of the time if I have a favorite metal band, chances are it’s not because they have a shredding lead guitarist, but rather it’s the drummer in the group who establishes the whole attitude and spirit behind the band. And if you don’t have the right guy, it can be pretty challenging just to feel good about an album, or your project in general. If you don’t have that in place you are just phoning it in, so to speak, in my opinion. Not only am I lucky to have my brother behind the kit, but we both tend to agree on the same things musically for this style and know how important “playing for the song” is. And we more than put our hearts into every aspect of it, from choices in fills to specific crashes, double bass work, and never abusing the ride cymbal! LOL. It’s all real specific stuff. So we went as hard as we could with that, crafting each song. I’m hoping for even bigger and better production on our next album. The razor tight big production layers and sound is a staple of a lot of my favorite 80’s/early 90’s bands.
I was wondering if maybe you could give readers a little insight into the album and discuss the recording process. How long did it take to record the album and what was the writing process like? Did you go in before hand with all the songs already written, or did you come up with any new ideas while recording?
Derek: Yeah definitely! The album took about a month to record at home once I had all the songs worked out. Then the vocals came second, all of which took a lot of time in trying to find the ideas that we felt worked best. And after the vocal demos and sketches were tracked to our liking, we then had to re-record all 12 songs with full vocals. But the backstory is that the writing, as usual, takes the most time.
As far as the process goes, I start out every day with a scheduled time to come up with new riffs and ideas, record them, and then starting piecing songs together. Then my brother comes in and we work to create the ideal drum parts, and then finally add bass and vocals. Probably what you’re used to hearing in terms of an approach, perhaps not, but it's what works for us. At times we moved at glacier like speed, perhaps compared to other artists, since we really go through the arrangements over and over with a fine toothed comb. So the truth is this album is really a product of 3 long years. I mean there’s so much to go over - do we have all day? LOL.
And as to songwriting, early on as a songwriter I tried writing along the lines of what was the most tempting at the time for my tastes, generally 80’s shred metal lead guitar and sledgehammer 80’s riffs, which were the main elements of the entire album. I mean who wouldn’t want an album with killer riffs and runs through the whole thing, right?
Well, after a couple albums worth of that stuff, and you slay every dragon LOL, you really start to look into what direction you ultimately want to head in. Eventually, I knew that I wanted to take a stab at writing a complete album of 3 minute songs that would fit into the classic radio AOR pop format, only to realize later that all my favorite bands threw away the rule book a long time ago! They were writing 6 and 7 minute epic songs (Cemetery Gates for example) and having success. So, along with the fact that I was getting tired of just being the lead guitarist that can shred, I came to the point of just wanting to be a band guy. A band guy who contributes to the entire process of writing great songs with my band mates.
My tastes have always kind of leaned towards upbeat (obscenely) melodic commercial hard rock and metal songs. You know, the days of the record company filter and those million dollar budgets. Everything was on the line and you needed that sugar chorus or money riff that was gonna get the party started. It's fun to put yourself in that position, and that was definitely a template going in to this album. Verse-chorus traditional structure, but with less of a rule book, more freedom and experimenting with writing longer songs. Often I’ll put on a song to test out a PA system and then a couple minutes later have to walk back over and put another song on etc. There’s something about the longer approach!
Anyways, back to the writing, once I was flush with riffs the beginning of the album began. Recorded at home (Cobra Cobra studios), I tabbed out all my solos and parts and got to work. For drums, we booked 3 studio days over an 8 month stretch, 4 songs each day, at Tone Lab Studios in Portland, home of a fantastic engineer, Justin Abel. We really turned it on creatively there, and with Justin being a song writer himself, we got a couple of last minute nudges, especially with drum ideas before hitting record. That was actually my first time in a professional grade "home" studio. But after the first 4 tunes were dialed in I got really comfortable in that environment, which inspired me to spend even more time fine tuning the next 4 songs at home to prepare for our next session. I spent a lot of time at home perfecting the various parts and arrangements before our next studio session because, as you know, that’s when you get stuff done! The pressure hits and you really have to knuckle down and make it happen by the deadline.
While preparing for the final session's deadline, June 1st 2018, my monitors at home (Infinity Infinitesimal) blew up at the last minute. So I had to scramble to mix my demo parts for the next day in the studio with a couple of sketch throw away boom box speakers I ended up finding in the garage. There's always something!
Once I was up and running again I went from being ahead of the game to running behind. By the time I finished the solos and mixes it was 11am the next morning. But I showed up to the studio to critique parts for another 8 hrs after that! LOL, Let’s just say I slept like a baby that night. After that final date, for me the album on my end was done and we had the instrumental side locked down. We sent the tunes off to our vocalist and he got to work. This project was night and day, from a style standpoint, then anything he’s done. He went through hundreds of ideas before finalizing all his vocal performances. That took quite awhile, but he did an amazing job, and I couldn't be happier with his contribution.
I read a bit of your bio from another article and found out that you and your brother give music lessons. I was wondering if you could talk about that and how it eventually led to the formation of Cobra Cobra? Also, as a music teacher and guitarist what are some of your musical philosophies when teaching people?
Derek: The lessons side of things actually started at a local music store here in Oregon City. Adrian Music was a main stay for local players and students, then it became Blue Dot Guitars after one of the repair techs, also a teacher, bought the business. I managed to get hired on, thanks to my good friend Brandon Cook (The Loyal Order, Black n’ Blue) who was also teaching there at the time. From then, for a period of time, I taught guitar lessons during the day and then would mind the shop at night when the owner went home to try to sell guitars.
As far as musical philosophies go, I'd say I am a foundational type of teacher. I mean I didn't approach lessons based on who was popular at the time. I understood that the key to being a great guitar player was to learn from the best, all the classic rock guitar heroes along with some worthy blues guys. I mean, those cats were the ones who inspired all of us to want to play right? LOL. But, just as importantly, along with the proper foundation it's all about the work you are willing to put in. I am a stickler about establishing a regular and consistent personal practice regimen. It's like a bank account, no deposit made - no withdrawal available, LOL.
As for the creative side, I’ve usually written an album's worth of songs every 2 years, just on my own in order to have something to show for my efforts for my guitar students and friends and family. As things progressed my brother and I would spend time having fun just jamming and doing the instrumental thing for awhile, building our chops and carving out song ideas from our jam sessions. Whenever you have a sound proofed 7-day-a-week rehearsal spot, in our case the guitar store, plus with all it's nice gear, it’s hard for the wheels to not start turning LOL! So from there we just started utilizing that space at night and eventually we wanted to form a proper band.
So, we’d show up every night and run through tunes I’d put together at home. Then we recruited our first bassist and vocalist and next thing you know we played our first few shows which went quite well. But then the music store went down due to the recession, it was a pretty major setback. We felt like we kinda lost everything and so we had to re-group and build back up to what we had before the crash. We ended up renting smaller rooms in a commercial office space building in town till we got a bigger room, once we were back up and running I started renting the space out to local bands, which helped offset our cost to rent the space for our project. That’s actually how our we found Chris, our vocalist. His band Fallstar rented the space for rehearsals for awhile. But lately it’s been great to keep the current practice spot we have now. It’s not an every day thing like the old days, but the idea is to have at the bare minimum, a jam room with no noise ordinances which is what we have now.
But back to teaching guitar, my whole thing before a student signs up is to make sure they understand that our lessons program is a membership agreement. It is designed for the serious student who’s really interested in improving their skills. So with that in mind, we get started getting our skills up and running from a technique stand point, almost like a guitar gym. As I mentioned previously, I try to expose them to as many of the greats as I can, which in many cases are not the players that they are super familiar with. From there we get into listening to music on a deeper level. For a new student, just to get them excited about learning, I help them get started by learning a lot of hit song 'signature' riffs from every genre including 80's rock-Nu Metal where the riff can be as basic as 2 or 3 notes. Once I show them how basic some of it can be l usually get a “wow almost anyone can do this!” kind of response. And from there they begin to get inspired to start creating some of their own ideas. And no matter how basic it may be in the beginning, it’s always a lot of fun.
For advanced players there’s no shortage of scale based lessons/workouts that I utilize. I encourage consistent improvising over a wide variety of styles, until they start to shoot for a goal - i.e. "I have to be stage ready by January 1st"!, LOL. Once they’re there and they’re feeling pretty good, it's at that point that they want me to record them, LOL. I have to admit I’m still learning my engineering chops, but eventually I think it would be nice to eventually transition into an audio engineering role, while still accepting the serious student. Nothing I do is too mind-blowingly different from other teachers out there. But since I’ve been doing it so long it’s turned into something that is not just focusing on guitar lessons, but a music career training facility and launch pad!
Returning to the debut album, I wanted to know if there are any songs off of the album that standout the most to you? For me I really enjoy those triumphant chorus sections on songs like, “Free in My Head” and “Life After Poison.” There are plenty of catchy chord structures and tasty rhythms, which I think gives the album a very fierce and raw edge.
Derek: Nice! I really appreciate that - that was the desired effect with both of those. That’s actually usually my question to the listener! Typically it’s the songs that I struggled with that stand out to me personally because just getting them across the finish line was quite the arduous task. Starting out, say you have an intro riff/a verse riff, but no chorus riff and figure you can just finish the song easily after that.. it’ll be perfect 3/4’s of the way through, then it’s like holy (bleep) - now where do we go? for rest of the song. It really felt like that for the whole album, other than track one, “The Conquering." For some reason that one just came together but some examples for that were actually “Life After Poison” the title track and “The Overtaker”. Obscene amounts of time writing/scraping/rewriting etc. But truth be told I’d never worked harder on a song then on the song “A Little Dark, A Little Sick…”
The very first incarnation of the song had a completely different chorus section in the arrangement which when I thought it was a done deal, I realized that it just, in no way shape or form, cut it. So to find something I was happy with ended up taking weeks and months of day-in-day-out working to come up with the right build and parts. The exit riff at the end took like 6 hours one night as an example. But then again, when we were tracking drums and got to the end of the song, my brother nailed the ending drum lick in one take, our engineer Justin jumped up and said “you guys are freaks!” LOL. We’re so used to bands doing predictable endings, like a fade ending or an abrupt ending that is kinda awkward. It’s hard to come up with great endings but it’s something we work hard on since it translates live. All that to say though, you forget the all the time you slaved on a track later, and it seems like a life time ago, but I still remember all the hard fought stuff.
Another high point of that song to me is that it just so happens to be the song that really showcases Chris’ vocal abilities, it's the best one in my opinion for that. But I've been getting a lot of positive feedback on that one lately as the favorite song on the album, so I know there's something special going on there.
As a guitarist and songwriter, I was wondering if you could talk about some of your musical influences. Growing up what bands or musicians played a role in your development as a musician?
Derek: Haha, well I grew up in church where my dad would put a church band together and play on Saturday nights. It was his way of reaching out to the younger crowd who thought church people were really square, can I use that term nowadays? LOL. It was actually pretty cool how they’d cover Judas Priest songs, but change the lyrics to Christian lyrics, etc. He would also do some of his original songs with extended solos as well, so that was always a thing early on.
My uncle played guitar too and was a pretty big Eddie Van Halen fanatic. So when I learned my first couple of riffs it was nice to bounce those off him. He was someone I could call up and name any player and he would know who it was: BB King, Hendrix, Brian May, Steve Vai, SRV, Robert Cray, Eric Johnson, George Lynch etc.
In the very beginning I was kinda into the Eric Clapton 24 Nights era, where he had that kinda long haired skater haircut. I just thought he was so badass looking! Around that time my uncle was sending us Joe Satriani album samplers. He sent Flying In A Blue Dream, which had 3 songs on the album; The Forgotten Part 1 and 2, and of course Big Bad Moon. If I really think back hard enough, that may of been my first real introduction to guitar music. I knew Satriani ripped, I just had no clue what techniques I was hearing so I played that thing to death.
I kinda worked my way up, Clapton, a massive Led Zeppelin phase, then into early 80’s Priest. Even though I was into the older sound I started warming up to 80’s production sound and some of the Van Halen stuff I was hearing. Then from all the guitar and music mags around I discovered Pantera and that pretty much checked all the boxes for me: drum sound, production, the energy they brought to the table and how they incorporated that Van Halen excitement into a really aggressive Metallica based style. I ended up seeing Metallica live twice so got into them heavily for awhile, and of course Megadeth and Yngwie, and well you name it!
After I exhausted all that stuff I was turned on to King’s X from a drummer friend of mine, which took a little bit of getting used to but once it grew on me it really turned into 'the thing' - my new favorite band. You had the sledgehammer riffs but incorporated into a Hard Rock Pop sound, if you will, with crystal clear vocals you could actually hear. After learning 15-plus albums worth of that stuff I started to get into the big production of bands like T-Ride. Eric Valentine, and a band I heard about through him 'Scritti Politti', continue to be massive influences, the way they construct bass lines and all the studio wizardry. So that’s basically “the” style for where I’m at now..the Pantera rhythm section, Joe Satriani solos, and King’s X cleaner vocals no matter how heavy we get. Some of the classic death metal bands were a huge influence as well so it’s pretty across the board, from guitar hero to extreme heavy metal.
I wanted to get a little more information about your local music scene, as I am always interested in hearing about local music scenes and how the bands in those areas go about trying to book shows to perform their music live. Before this pandemic, what was the music scene like for rock and metal?
Derek: Thriving! Our scene here in Portland, OR was growing leaps and bounds. For starters we have probably the biggest tribute band circuit in the country. Every year during the summer they put on a massive tribute band festival called “Harefest”. And if you’ve never heard of it definitely see if you can catch some of the show's previous videos on YouTube. There’s been 8 or 9 of them in a row every summer so far, with the exception of this year. But often a typical year for that specific scene, for example, is they’ll start off with an 80’s Weekend in January, a big Spring Break Show, a pre-Harefest show and then Harefest over the summer. Then, they will put on a big labor day show, followed by a show around Halloween then finally a big New Years Eve Show. So that’s basically what it was like before Covid-19 hit.
Most of us have been in a tribute band, some just as a side gig to help pay the bills, but also while working on our original projects. A lot of original bands book local shows all year. Some bands pay to play, to gain exposure. It's like renting a club with a ready made audience haha. But some of the venues will pay unbelievably well for the tribute shows. I like to think eventually they will pay just as well for an original band like us once they see us start to get the same draw, or even better, as a good tribute band does. That would be the ultimate, to be able to transition to “The Real Thing”. So for us, at this point we’re just pushing through this current down time by writing, demoing material and doing music videos etc.
I’ve asked this question to other guitarists before during interviews and with the recent passing of Eddie Van Halen I feel like it is extremely relevant. Do you think we will see another Eddie Van Halen come along and inspire the next generation of rock and metal guitarists? Also, you fear that people will become less interested in playing an instrument due to the increase in the popularity of electronic music?
Derek: Wow. Yeah man, that’s tricky. As a guitar instructor over the years, I've found that upwards of 80% of the new student base coming in the door (young kids) don’t even have a handle on who EVH is. I’ve got to really hound them! It's an interesting phenomenon nowadays, but I've noticed that none of the new players out there attempting to shred like the 'greats' seem to be able to command anything close to the attention span of the listener that the players of the 70's did. Along with that, most of the time they pass on any influence an Eddie Van Halen could have by chalking it up as “Dad rock”. Never mind going even further into the actual influences Eddie had like Clapton, etc.
There’s a great saying I’ve heard kicked around over the years. That is "all the best guitarists were born in 54”. Interestingly, that is the year the Fender Strat was born too. Anywhere from within that 54-56 era you've got Pat Travers, George Lynch, Joe Satriani, Michael Schenker, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Eric Johnson, to name a few. It's hard to list off all of them without looking it up. Something about being that age and processing music the way they did without all the modern distractions, already makes Eddie or any of those guys way cooler than any of us, LOL!
What we can do, though, is encourage new players to develop an intense appreciation and passion for players like Eddie Van Halen, or Randy Rhoads for example. Instruct them that if they would just set a personal goal, if they would dedicate 6 months to digest that music and get into that mindset of taking the world by storm and imagine living in that 1979 world. If a student is willing to do that, then by all means there could very likely be some really scary players coming out of the woodwork in the near future. You can't build an Empire State building on a shaky and shallow foundation. You have to dig down to the bedrock of rock and roll. I always have it in the back of my mind to take my entire music collection and throw it off the proverbial cliff, and only listen to early Deep Purple, Hendrix, and Cream, LOL, and that kind of stuff!
As far as the electronic thing goes, I feel like it’s not quite the hit to the guitar community like I’ve heard over the years. I’ve recently rethought of the electronic scene as a new community of dedicated engineers and producers who’ve learned their DAW’s inside and out. A lot of them would gladly love to record a kick ass solo, or tell you "If I had to do some of your solos I’d be so F'd!”. So if anything, they’re very encouraging and still appreciate great guitar playing, they just can’t do it themselves. As much as that scene has come into prominence, kind of taken over, it’s still up to us true believers to keep finding the treasure there is to find in the metal and rock world and ultimately get it back on top, and to keep it on top!
Looking to the future what does Cobra Cobra have planned? I believe you had talked to me about doing a music video.
Derek: The future is an unwavering commitment to new music and continuing to push the envelope with all things musical with the freedom to explore, that is without any predetermined constraints. We definitely plan on letting things unfold naturally. Sometimes that feels like years of waiting around for someone to finish their part, or for the writing/mixing/mastering to be done. It's years upon years of slogging it out without a paycheck, i.e. “paying the price” up front, in full, in advance without any guarantees of success.
Mostly we do our music for ourselves, even if no one else gets to hear it, which I can’t imagine that happening. But even though we strive to make music that will have a world-wide impact, at the same time we kind of keep our expectations low, but we keep going for the gold each and every time we do an album. Our focus is on quality and being happy with the direction we’re headed in. We know we can stand back and let the 'word of mouth' do it’s thing at that point.
We’re actually all trying to get more motivated to promote ourselves on social media, when we’d rather be working on tunes. Our bass player is really good at it at the moment. As you mentioned, a Cobra Cobra music video is next. And with that there’s some serious option anxiety on the table of which song to choose. So that should be quite a surprise! In the mean time we’re 4 songs deep into new stuff, and of course have a couple instrumental albums already in the can, just in case ‘gun-to-our-head' we have to turn out a record under contract - we could do it, haha. But that’s all wishful thinking at the moment.
With our the student base we’ve already recouped the cost for our CD’s and shirts so at this point it’s just continuing to get exposure with that new listener out there, wherever that may be. So far we’ve had some pretty good luck in the UK with radio play and some of our connections over there. They’re loving it! Those people already seem like our closest friends. But between our CD release show, as soon as that’s an option, and the new video along with new material, we’re seriously pumped for the future and everything to come!
Hemotoxin does not disappoint with their newest onslaught of cranial splitting death/thrash. The band's third full-length album, “Restructure the Molded Mind,” features scorching technicality, uncompromising brutality and plenty of headbanging mind altering riffs.
These San Francisco Bay Area musicians took their time this new album, which in all honesty was hard for me to accept, especially after the band’s impressive 2016 release, “Biological Enslavement.” I remember hearing that album and doing the review thinking, “Damn, these guys have really raised the bar!” Ever since the beginning Hemotoxin has shown promise, but I believe, “Biological Enslavement,” is where the band completely surpassed their previous recordings by developing an extremely tight and technical sound. Also, it was the first album of theirs on Unspeakable Axe Records, a label that I have a tremendous amount respect for, and the label that will be releasing this new album as well.
“Restructure the Molded Mind,” is another solid offering from the band and I do believe it is their most ambitious effort to date. The musicianship and songwriting on this album is in all honesty even more astonishing than what was on, "Biological Enslavement." Unlike some bands who think they are writing complex thought provoking lyrics, but end up sounding like Garth from Wayne's World trying to explain conspiracy theories, Hemotoxin crafts these very profound messages that are not pretentious and really resonate with where our society is heading.
Overall, their musicianship on this album is simply outstanding, however, they do not over complicate the listener with pointless technical arrangements. Take for example the song, “Legions of Alienation,” where the open riff section hits hard like a suplex from Brock Lesnar, matching Michael’s ferocious delivery. Also, Michael lays down an exceptional guitar solo during the song that highlights his strong lead guitar talents.
Tracks like “Unreality” and “Execution” do a great job conveying a progressive side at times, which I think creates a brilliant contrast with the band’s raw old school death thrash mentality. You just cannot predict where this band will go and that is what I tend enjoy most about this album. Another song I want to mention is, “Automation,” which I consider to be my favorite track off of the album. I felt the songwriting on this track was flawless as well as the instrumental compositions. This is what metal radio stations should be playing and not that watered down hardcore nonsense where the band looks like they are entering a fashion show for biggest hipster douche in the universe.
In conclusion, Hemotoxin does not need to win a battle of the bands, or pay to play on a big metal show in order to feel like they are a worthy act, because at the end of the day these musicians prove time and time again that they are driven to create meaningful technical death thrash music. I feel that, “Restructure the Molded Mind,” is everything a ravenous death thrash maniac could ever want and more, especially in terms of solid songwriting. This is without a doubt an early contender for one of the best albums to come out this year and one I hope captures the ears and minds of the metal community in the months ahead.
