Catching Up: 2020 Part 5

Enough small talk, let's go.

ELEINE: DANCING IN HELL

In the late 90's/early 00's there was a big trend particularly in Europe for symphonic and gothic metal bands to feature an extremely attractive woman on vocals.  Bands like Epica, Nightwish, Tristania, Leaves' Eyes and Within Temptation come to mind.  My first thought upon seeing this band pop up on my radar was that this was another one, especially considering frontwoman Madeleine Liljestam's other vocation as a professional model.  This is a symphonic metal band, but it was truly driven by the guitars, which is not always the case.  The symphonic elements are there, but are more in the background.  Liljestam has an impressive voice, but not the operatic range of someone like Nightwish's Tarja Tarunen, but that's fine because it matches the music extremely well.     

HAUNT: MIND FREEZE

Haunt released a staggering THREE albums in 2020 alone.  I cannot state enough how crazy that is in this day and age.  This was the first of the three albums and I think I picked up at least one of the other two.  Haunt is the side project of Beastmaker's Trevor William Church, whose father once played bass for Sammy Hagar, so music is very much in his blood.  The music is decidedly old-school-leaning heavy metal with incredibly infectious hooks and sing-along choruses.  Haunt has built an impressive reputation for truly catchy, captivating metal.  The most impressive thing is that despite the incredibly productivity, each release sounds unique.  That is truly hard to do.

STALKER: BLACK MAJIK TERROR

One might possibly guess based on the album cover what this band would sound like.  But, I suspect the guess would be along the lines of epic traditional/doom metal groups like Brocas Helm, Cirith Ungol or Manilla Road.  Those guesses would actually be wrong.  I would argue that Stalker's sound owes far more to Show No Mercy-era Slayer than those other bands.  The songs come fast and ferocious with riffs upon riffs, never really letting up for a breath.  And the vocals are banshee-like shrieks and wails that match the music perfectly.  This is an absolute no-frills speed metal assault on the senses and though the band doesn't reinvent the wheel, there is something to be said for an album that just flat-out rocks.  This is one of those albums.

THE TROOPS OF DOOM: THE RISE OF HERESY

Formed by Jairo Guedz, an early member of Sepultura, The Troops of Doom are also named after the Sepultura song off of Morbid Visions.  And true to form, this band adds cover songs of that song as well as "Bestial Devastation" on their first real release.  This is just an EP, but it seemed like enough of a big deal that I wanted to cover it.  It seems a lot of individuals are re-recording old Sepultura material, but Guedz has really captured the essence of that old material.  The band here does an astonishing job of turning back the clock and tapping into the raw, bludgeoning force of those early Sepultura albums.  The atmosphere is just pure evil.  This EP is an exceptional release that blew me away.  I was not expecting to like it this much.

VAMPIRE: REX

I love blackened thrash metal generally.  It kind of depends on building just the right atmosphere and every instrument has to be just right, but when there is that correct mixture, it's really damn hard to beat.  Think Destroyer 666's Cold Steel.  But it doesn't always work out that way, as shown by my disappointment when I saw Thulcandra opening for Fleshgod Apocalypse.  Sometimes the feel just is not there.  Luckily, Vampire falls squarely in the good category.  The riffs are infectious and the songs have just the right dark atmosphere, punctuated by soaring leads and feral vocals.  I have no idea why I have not sought out much by this band.  They check all the right boxes for this style.  

Haunt: If Icarus Could Fly (2019)

Moving away from death metal releases from 2019, here we have a good old traditional metal release from 2019.  I discussed Haunt not all that long ago with their 2019 EP Mosaic Vision.  The band has been very prolific already in their young careers, also releasing this full-length and two splits this year alone.  And, their 2020 full-length has already been announced (and I have it on pre-order). 

As much as I enjoyed the EP, I think this release is even better.  The riffs are a little harder-edged on this release than the previous one, without sacrificing any of the catchiness and infectious hooks.  The songs are aggressive, yet melodic with incendiary solos.  The vocals are dry, yet soar over the riffs.

This is something of a loose concept piece about Greek myths including that of Icarus.  I am sure most are familiar with that storyline.  Icarus and his father became trapped in the labyrinth with a minotaur and attempted to leave by building themselves wings out of wax and feathers.  They flew out of the labyrinth, but Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting the wax and his wings fell apart with Icarus plummeting to his death.  Of course the story of Icarus was also the subject of the Iron Maiden classic "Flight of Icarus". 

This is a damn good album.  It is one of the better traditional metal albums of the year and even surpasses the band's EP from this year.  I will be keeping up with Haunt in the future, which may prove difficult, as prolific as they are.

Haunt: Mosaic Vision (2019)

The Fresno, California-based Haunt has been remarkably active since forming around 2017.  The band started as a solo project for Beastmaker vocalist/guitarist and Church Recordings founder Trevor William Church.  The label was also once the home of Dream Tröll, a band I have quickly developed an affinity for.  Haunt has so far released two full-length albums, two EPs, two splits and a single.  That is a lot of recordings for such a new band.  This release is one of the band's EPs, with just four songs on it.

I mentioned Dream Tröll in the previous paragraph and that is an adequate place to begin in describing Haunt's sound.  This is true, old school-sounding heavy metal with poppy melodies and extremely catchy choruses.  The music is a bit different than the other harder-edged material that I have heard from Haunt.  This is much more melodic.  The guitars are razor-sharp with blazing solos and wailing vocals.  Each of the songs on this EP is catchier than the last.

This is a fairly effective introduction to an impressive young band.  It is probably not their best release, as I said before most of their music is generally heavier than this release, but it is damn good in its own right.  I will be covering another one of Haunt's releases soon.