Ironborne: Hellion Battalion (2019)

I'm almost positive that "Ironborne" is a Game of Thrones reference.  I could be wrong, but as I recall that's what men from Pyke, led by the Greyjoys called themselves.  That would not be shocking for a band to adopt that name.  It sounds metal as fuck.

Ironborne, the band, is a decent heavy metal band from Northern Ireland who now has two demos to their name.  Their first one was released a couple of years ago and featured a Thor cover.  This one is real damn short, consisting of just two songs.

The first song is the title track and is a rollicking four minute track with some damn catchy choruses about unchaining the wolves of the night.  It's kind of cheesy but damn is it fun.  The second track "Stormchild" is shorter and not quite as good.  I like the chorus but a lot of the rest of it reminds me of some of KISS's heavier material, with the vocalist in particular sounding like Paul Stanley at times.  Maybe that's just me.  It is still decent enough and fits in well with the other song, but it is just a tad weaker.

I quite like this demo overall.  I am anxious to see what Ironborne can do on a full-length.

Funeral Doom Bands on Bandcamp

I did one of these posts quite a while ago with slam death metal.  I decided it was about time to pick a new genre to take a look at briefly and hopefully discover some good, newer bands.  All of these are either free or Name Your Price.

Dom: Dom II End
Dom is a one-man funeral doom metal project from Spain.  Created exclusively by Ivan "Belial" Manzano, Dom has managed to put out a number of releases in the short time it has been active.  Dom is incredibly bleak with a morosely slow sound and some dark and disturbing soundscapes.  The use of keyboards further adds to the hopeless sound.  This is an instrumental band but for the most part vocals are not missed.  At times, it tends to drag on with no real direction, but for the most part it sounds pretty good.

Lycus: Demo 2011
Lycus has been getting a little bit of hype, as well as the occasional mention over on Metalsucks.  It is fairly well-deserved too.  Lycus is not as slow-paced as other bands, and probably are more of a doom metal band with death metal-esque growled vocals in the vein of Swallow the Sun's first album than a funeral doom metal band.  The music is compelling though.  I will be on the lookout for their debut album which is supposed to release this year.

The Cold View: Weeping Winter
Winter is probably the most appropriate season for funeral doom, especially the really cold, miserable days and The Cold View have taken that concept and run with it.  Musically, The Cold View bears a very strong resemblance to Ahab's debut album.  I love that album so I am definitely on board here.  It is very slow, very depressing, but with some surprisingly pretty moments if you listen close enough.  I like this one quite a bit.

Ubi Sunt: I
Ubi Sunt is quite an unusual group.  Their album is based on the works of Thomas Campion and Solage, two composers from the Renaissance.  Kind of an odd concept for a funeral doom metal band, but it comes across quite well.  There is a heavy use of wind instruments, strings, and organs which really add a Renaissance flair to the music.  The result is a very impressive mix.  I like this one a lot.

Bandcamp Mayhem: Randomness

I was on Facebook recently and a couple of ads caught my eye for bands on Bandcamp.  Not having much else to do at the time, I decided to check them out.

CROW BLACK SKY: PANTHEION

Crow Black Sky captured my attention because they are from South Africa.  I have not heard much metal from the African continent, so I am always intrigued when I run across a band from that region of the world.  Crow Black Sky is a melodic black/death metal band from Cape Town in South Africa.

The first thing that is noticeable is the frequent use of keyboards to achieve a symphonic effect.  This is a calculated effort to provide an epic atmosphere.  The result is similar to the better albums by Dimmu Borgir and Hecate Enthroned.  The guitar tone is suitably dark and crunchy and provides some interesting riffs.  The vocals are fairly typical for melodic black metal style.  Think Naglfar and Luna Ad Noctum for reference points.  They are delivered in a rough, deeper rasp.

The only real issue I have with this one is that some of the songs are a bit on the long side.  The album tends to drag a little bit in places.  Other than that, this is a decent album.  It is not something completely original and mind-blowing but it is certainly entertaining.

Bandcamp.

THE DEADSTATION: EPISODE I: LIKE PEERING INTO THE DEEPEST OCEAN ABYSS

Okay, the title of this album is pretentious as all hell.  It also does not help much that four of the seven tracks make up the "Like Peering Into the Deepest Ocean Abyss" saga.  I am not sure if they refer to it as a saga, but dammit I am going to refer to it as a saga.  Despite the ridiculously long album and song titles, the songs themselves are relatively succinct.  That's good.  It is easy to ignore the long titles that way.

Well if you could not tell by the album title, The Deadstation is a progressive metal band, somewhat in the vein of Dream Theater, Queensryche, Manticora and other groups.  The music is energetic and upbeat.  It is extremely melodic and for the most part faster-paced.   The songs have a more progressive structure, but the band keeps things from bogging down with some very impressive lead guitar work.  There are a couple of filler tracks on here, but that is not terribly surprising from this genre.  The vocal work is impressive and mostly consists of higher-registered singing.

This is a reasonably interesting release.  It probably does not do enough to stand out among other progressive metal bands, but it is a fun listen.

Bandcamp.

Reader Submissions: Nonsun: Good Old Evil

Nonsun is a Ukrainian duo that plays an amalgamation of sludge metal, doom metal, and drone metal.  They recently released this EP and contacted me to take a listen.

I will admit that this one took a little while to get into.  The band switches gears somewhat frequently between sludgy doom metal, which I enjoyed, to moments of random feedback and noise, which I really did not care for.  Nonsun is a very harsh listen.  There is nothing particularly pretty about anything that the band does.  When they are playing the more metallic parts, the tone is muddy and hostile and the vocals are rough.    The noise parts are very grating on the ears as well.  Of course, all of this is the point.  Nonsun is not trying to be particularly pleasant.  They are trying to be as loud and painful as possible.  And in that respect they certainly succeed.

There are moments on the second track "Rain Have Mercy" that border on the catchy.  As such, that is probably my favorite track on the EP.  It also has far fewer noise moments.  Of course with the good comes the bad, and third track "Message of Nihil Carried by the Waves of the Big Bang" is a complete noise/drone track.  The final track makes up for it with its very slow burn leading into nothingness.

As I said, this one took a couple of listens to get into.  There are some moments I did not care for, but by and large they were outnumbered by the good parts.

Nonsun bandcamp page.

Link to Review on Full Metal Attorney

Here is a link to a review I did for the band KozybunX over on my former law school colleague's blog, Full Metal Attorney. Check it out. If you like my blog, I am sure you will enjoy his as well.

KozybunX

A Quick Look at Slam Death Bands on Bandcamp

I have not done much with bandcamp.com so far. I have listened to a few bands that have requested me to do reviews of their material, but I have not explored the site much other than that. This week, I decided to do a search for Slam Week to see what kind of slam bands bandcamp has to offer. The results were fairly impressive.

AMPUTATION SPREE
Okay, this band is freaking incredible. They have two EPs available on their Bandcamp page and both of them sound great. The band is definitely influenced by Wormed, hence their kind of bizarre, sci-fi sounding slam. The atmosphere is the most impressive aspect from this band, something that is pretty lacking in most slam. This is some surprisingly good and original-sounding slam. I prefer the second EP personally, but they are both pretty damn good.

BLOODRAIN EVENING
This band has only released one song so far, but it is fairly impressive. The vocals can actually be understood and are not delivered in a completely generic style. The music is kind of a mix of slam death and Cannibal Corpse.

CARBONIZED GNAWING MANDIBLE
This one is almost morosely slow and has a mechanical quality to it that sounds surprisingly good. The production is interesting as it gives the whole album a spacey feel. The vocals echo quite a bit which gets a little annoying at times, but it adds to the spacey feel. On first listen I was not terribly impressed, but it grew on me.

EXTINCTIONIST
Extinctionist's EP is a short blast of slamming fury. There are five songs here and the whole thing clocks in at about eight minutes long. There is an old school death metal influence here, so the music is actually fairly fast while retaining a lot of the slam style.

NEUROMA
This band has a sense of humor, I'll give them that. Song titles like "Dingoes Ate My Baby" show this off. Musically it is faster-paced brutal death/slam, which sounds pretty good. After the first track, the rest of the songs on the free promo are demo and live tracks without as good of production values. But there is some talent here.

OMINOUS RUIN
I like this one quite a bit. The band does a lot to build an intense atmosphere. They sound like a mix of Devourment and Deicide, with the double layered extreme vocals and the rather impressive soloing mixed with the slams.