Friday, August 28, 2009

Century Media Carnival of Sounds Compilation

I received this CD sampler from Century Media along with a free CD that I got as a result of getting 10 Century Media proofs of purchase, my favorite thing about the company. The CD was Nevermore's Dreaming Neon Black, which was excellent. This, on the other hand, is mostly a pile of crap. Still, I'm not usually one to quibble with free music. And, if you believe that, you're incredibly gullible.

Century Media used to be one of the major labels involved in bringing European metal to the United States, something I am very grateful for. However, in recent years, the company has proven to be just as trendwhorish as Roadrunner, a company I have maligned at least a couple of times on this blog. Century Media is currently busy gobbling up as many deathcore bands as it can find before the bottom completely drops out of the market. Considering that deathcore has been fairly crappy to begin with, excepting a few bands, one can imagine what this has done to the label's reputation in metal circles.

Shall we begin?

WINDS OF PLAGUE: "Soldiers of Doomsday"
Blackened symphonic deathcore? That's apparently the genre tag that is given to this band. I've got an easier one for it: crap. Incredibly ambitious, the band nevertheless falls completely on its collective face. Think Dimmu Borgir, with lots and lots of breakdowns, and try not to recoil in terror. The band is obviously talented, but really can't write a decent song, at least not here, they're just trying too hard.

DIVINE HERESY: "Facebreaker"
This is the band started by Dino Casares while Fear Factory was on hiatus. I'm not sure of the intention in starting this band. The same death metal elements and industrial metal elements are here as are on Fear Factory, but lo and behold, breakdowns! So, apparently Dino wanted a band that had the same elements as Fear Factory, plus hardcore. Sign me up! Or not. There is also an overuse of blast beats here, seemingly the only thing the drummer can do is blast away. This further detracts from the experience because the rest of the music cannot be heard.

SUICIDE SILENCE: "Wake Up"
Perhaps this band is unfairly lumped in with the deathcore crowd. I don't know, to me they sound more like a grindcore band than a deathcore band. Nevertheless, they remain oddly popular with the deathcore scene. For the most part, this is just chaotic noise. There's no real structure here, certainly not falling into the metal genre structure. Therefore, NFM.

NAPALM DEATH: "Strong Arm"
Napalm Death is one of the godfathers of grindcore. They are also one of the first bands to experiment with combining this extreme punk style with death metal and are still one of the finest such bands. This is off of their newest album, one that I really enjoy. The grindcore elements are fairly obvious in Napalm Death's sound, but so are the death metal influences. This particular song is a little more grindcore, but for the most part the band has been closer to death metal for a long time. Barney Greenway has one of the more aggressive and primal sounding voices in extreme metal.

3 INCHES OF BLOOD: "Call of the Hammer"
I really enjoyed the last two albums by this band. As such, I will probably check this one out, even though I was a bit underwhelmed by the song. The mix just sounds off, the drums are too high in the mix and sound hollow. The hardcore vocalist is gone, being replaced by another vocalist to chime in with occasional growling screams. The lead vocalist though is still there. The music is still closer to traditional heavy metal. Not their strongest effort, but still passable.

LACUNA COIL: "Spellbound"
Lacuna Coil has been going downhill for awhile. Ever since Cristina Scabbia became a major sex symbol for the genre, the band has been heading into Evanescence territory. This song does nothing to right the ship, instead falling deeper into radio friendly rock muck. It sounds essentially the same as every other song the band has recorded since Comalies. I gave up on the music of Lacuna Coil after hearing Karmacode, this song convinces me I made the right decision. The guitar solo was a nice touch though, sorely lacking in much of their recent music.

ARSONISTS GET ALL THE GIRLS: "The 42nd Ego"
Owner of one of the worst names in extreme music, AGATG (I'm not writing that bullshit again) is similar in sound to Suicide Silence. By that I mean structureless grindcore. By that I mean NFM. More chaotic noise, although they come close to metal in some places. I haven't heard too many songs that start with a breakdown. I'm not sure I want to hear another one.

GOD FORBID: "War of Attrition"
God Forbid was one of my favorite metalcore-ish bands after their fourth album (the band had largely dropped many of the core influences in favor of a more melodic thrash metal sound). I was expecting big things for Earthsblood, unfortunately I was a little disappointed. Then soon after the band started touring, one of their founding members quit the band. It's been kind of a bad year for these guys. This song is one of the better ones off their newest album, but not the best. It features most of the elements that made me enjoy this band though. It's tough to say what will happen in the future for God Forbid. Hopefully they'll get back on track.

THE AGONIST: "Martyr Art"
The Agonist is a metalcore band out of Canada featuring a very attractive female singer, another frequent subject of Revolver's Hottest Chicks in Metal features. She takes the Arch Enemy approach to vocals, preferring more death metal inflected growls, although she does do several clean parts as well. The music is standard: boring metalcore noodling and breakdowns. It's safe to say the band's saving grace is their singer, without whom they would be almost completely unknown.

WARBRINGER: "Severed Reality"
At least something decent that I haven't already heard. Warbringer is one of the better newer U.S. thrash metal bands from California. Though very young, the band seems to know its classic thrash pretty well. The band is beginning to find their own voice on their latest release, as shown by this song. Fast, aggressive, and ferocious, Warbringer will be a band to watch for years to come.

DESPISED ICON: "MVP"
Despised Icon is often cited as one of the better bands to emerge from the deathcore scene. I hope the rest of their music is better than this song to prove that. The song just doesn't do anything. It's essentially blastbeats coupled with the singer's best (worst?) Barney Greenway impression. There's virtually no guitar riffs here at all. I've heard some good things about this band, this song is definitely not a point in the band's favor. I really hope this isn't the best there is from Despised Icon. Otherwise, I would be tempted to suggest NFM.

IWRESTLEDABEARONCE: "You Ain't No Family"
That's not a typo, that is the band's name and it is indeed a worse name than Arsonists Get All the Girls. As bad as the name is, the music is worse. A jumbled mess of noise that never really comes close to metal, the band has earned a big fat NFM from me. The singer is another girl that combines clean caterwauling with growling and shrieking. The music is virtually nonexistent. There is the occasional humorous interlude in there, but it seems clear this band is less interested in making a serious album, than they are at throwing as much shit as possible into their "song". Pass.

EARTH CRISIS: "To Ashes"
Earth Crisis seems to come from the Hatebreed style of modern hardcore. Or perhaps it's the other way around, I really have no interest in checking. This is basically loud, heavy hardcore featuring tough guy shouting and absolutely no attempts at making the song memorable or to stand out from all the other bands that sound like this, and there are a lot. NFM.

IN THIS MOMENT: "The Great Divide"
Blech. I was annoyed the moment the singer started crooning from the first second. Yet another band more known for their attractive female lead singer than their music. This one is a tad more melodic than The Agonist, though not as much as Lacuna Coil. They are significantly more annoying though. Their music basically sounds like Avenged Sevenfold, but with a female singer. NFM.

OLD MAN'S CHILD: "Ferden Mot Fiendens Land"
Old Man's Child is a band from Galder, also of Dimmu Borgir. Much like Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child plays melodic black metal. It's a welcome change of pace from the barrage of crap perpetrated by the last several tracks. This unfortunately is not one of the better tracks from the album. It does feature the keyboard flourishes and heavy riffing that the band and genre are known for, it's just not one of the more memorable songs from the band's new album. The acoustic part though is strangely beautiful.

DAATH: "Silenced"
Daath made big waves in the metal mainstream a couple of years ago when their album The Hinderers came out. People who don't know anything (Roadrunner Records) hailed the band as the next big American extreme metal band and cited supposed influences from death, groove, thrash, and black metal in their music. When I heard the band though, I heard a Fear Factory clone and nothing more. Daath has improved their sound this time around a little. It is a more cohesive mix of styles, but I still have yet to hear anything worth the hype that they have received. This is an improvement, but I think the band still has some growing to do before they can be considered the next big American metal band. Unfortunately, the band kind of became victims of their hype because I would enjoy the band more if they had not been shoved down the throats of metal listeners.

LUNA MORTIS: "Forevermore"
This song starts off great, finally some decent new melodic death metal. Then it suddenly switches gears and heads into a progressive gothic metal style, complete with another female lead singer. This one sings more than screams but ultimately, the music just falls flat. This band has some promise, but they fail to live up to it on this song. It would be nice to hear a female singer in a band other than a melodic death metal band. It would be nice to hear a melodic female metal singer that is not singing opera. This band just doesn't quite make it. It's a good thing there are still bands like Benedictum and Temtris out there.

SWORN ENEMY: "Still Hating"
Hatebreed ripoff alert. For such a terrible band, Hatebreed sure has a lot of imitators. Sworn Enemy at least has headed into more of a groove metal style of guitar riffing which manages to save the band. Throwdown did the same thing recently. All told, this band has gotten a little closer to later-era Pantera than Hatebreed on this particular song, but that's only a marginal step forward. I still would not buy an album from this band.

ARCHITECTS UK: "We're All Alone"
Ahh, my ears are hurting. What the fuck is this? It's almost as noisy as Iwrestledabearonce, but only slightly more structured. This band is basically just a hardcore band. And not a very good one. I'm tired of writing and I hate this fucking song so that's it. NFM.

I will probably never listen to this piece of shit sampler again. What a dismal pile of crap.

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