Ancient Wind - The Chosen Slain

Genre: Blackened Thrash, Death Metal
Label: To The Head Records

Hailing from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, an aspiring hotbed of scathing molten metal mayhem, Ancient Wind bring the passion and the pain with their debut album, The Chosen Slain.

Here, Ancient Wind fuels a massive storm of deathened, blackened thrash with raw vocals, a hatred for all things "poser" and enough aggression to level a city. The meeting of these styles has led to the actualization of what, I believe, Feasting Amon Amarth would sound like... only a fuck-ton more thrashy and way better than I could of imagined!

Vocalist Roberto Inferno rips the mic to shreds with his battle ready roars and occasionally sounds like the man-mountain, Johan Hegg. So, no complaints here. Next, I have to mention Girth Brook's drumming. Kudos to you, sir. You managed to smoothly blend together genres that, while normally do blend well together, tend to leave lumps in the batter. Normally in a situation like this, you usually hear more of one influence than the other(s). Here, Mr. Brook manages to give equal time to three different styles.

As for the string section of Ancient Wind... fuck. Do I have to keep writing? I think you get how I feel about this band already. They fucking rule! If they were a Portland band, I'd be at their next show with a tray of my special brownies as an offering to their godliness... though, living in Colorado, they've probably had they're fair share of magical baked goods...

In summery, Ancient Wind out-metal some veterans of metal scene that are 15+ years their senior! Keep your bloodshot eyes on these guys! Easily recommended for those of you who are just straight tired of Skeletonwitch's even softening sound...

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At The Seams - In Shadows Of Giants

Genre: All Of Them
Label: Unsigned (but not for long, I'd bet...)

No risk, no reward. Know risk, know reward.

It has been my experience in these past nine years of criticising other's work (when I couldn't hope to achieve anything even remotely cool if my life depended on it) that the more you blend genres together, the farther away from "pure" or "true" metal you are, the more you seem to get hated on. Especially here in Portland, where local metalheads like their sludge metal thick, their grind filthy and their black metal BLACK! Thankfully, bands like Titarius (purveyors of the truest "blender metal"), Stonecreep and Beyond The Red Horizon (R.I.P.) and their ilk, made it their mission to buck conventional metal trends in the area and gave us all something new to wrap our heads around. Now, in 2015 (since 2012), At The Seams is here to tear the Portland metal scene apart... stitch by stitch? That doesn't sound quite right....

The album's title, In Shadows Of Giants, might be alluding to all of the influences that At The Seams pulls from. It's a veritable orgy of styles and genres slamming together and birthing a litter of blended metal tracks. One minute, there are influences of DevilDriver's groovage that run into Immortal's neck breaking, blackened speed. A little bit of Hatebreed's hardcore bounce gives way to a Sodom-level thrash attack. And so on...

Vocalist Spencer Tyler leads the charge by bouncing back and forth from a scathing black metal rasp to a formidable roar that would give Randy Blythe's tempered pipes a run for their money. Not wanting to be left behind, the tandem guitar attack co-helmed by axe swingers Edward Kilpatrick and Kevin O'Leary, slash and destroy all within reach with an arsenal of slowed 'core chugs and rippin' thrash riffs. Dan Anderson's drum work runs a similar range in speed and ferocity and never seems to lose any of it's punch due to In Shadows Of Giants mastering. The same can thankfully be said about Brian Chilson's bombastic bass brutalization, since that's a layer that so many people tend to miss out on.

I'm a little peeved at In Shadows Of Giants meager six tracks/thirty-two minute run time. But I think we all are since this shit is like crack! I might even try to worm my way out of the 'burbs and into the big city to catch a live show soon. There should be a few coming up since apparently At The Seams are already working on their second release! Paint me motherfucking excited!

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Xibalba - Tierra Y Libertad

Genre: Hardcore, Death Metal
Label: Southern Lord

Xibalba is a band, nay, an experience that nobody prepared me for. I assumed from the name that I was going to be thrown into the razor lined maw of a savage black metal band akin to Sarcofago or maybe an old fashioned Sepultura-like deal. I was right about the savagery, but I missed the genres by a bit and underestimated to which degree I'd be brutalized by the Pomona, California based hardcore act. Within the first minute of the first track, 'Enemigo', I found myself compulsed to message my friends, going, "Oh my God, dude! Xibalba! XIBALBA!!!", like I were advertising for a horror flick in the 1950's. (Minus the, "dude!" part, I guess.)

The assault, hereon in to be known as Tierra Y Libertad, begins with a bloodthirsty growl. The kind of growl that is usually the last thing someone hears when they're pissing off a fucking lion! And then... the drums. Like some sort of futuristic, concussive machine gun that fires sonic booms made of giant fists, they pummeled and bludgeoned and beat and (get it? They're fucking brutal) bloodied the absolutely hell out of me! This vicious attack didn't relent until the forth track ('Pausa', a minute and a half long breather).  The guitars chug and chunk up and down the heavy riff spectrum, undoubtedly breaking the notably sturdy measuring instrument in the process.

I can't stress enough just how brutal every aspect of this album is. And not in that "br00tal" or whatever kind of way you might assume. I wasn't entirely wrong with the Sarcafago comparison earlier since I ended up thinking of them throughout this album. The spirit is there. That attitude. That intensity. That rage. It's all there. But in a fresh, new form that will stomp you just as dead. If you're going to walk away from this review, please let it be this: Xibalba and Tierra Y Libertad are more than worth your time if you consider yourself a fan of raging hardcore or intense music in any form. The concussion it inflicts is also worth it.

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Dark Elite - Enter The Void (Cassette)

Thus one goes to the stars…(I haven’t read the Aeneid in ages.)

I’ve got to be honest here, I almost passed this one over without even listening to it until I noticed that Timo Honkanen was on guitar duty. His contributions to Battlelore are amazing, so I figured that would transfer over into this ep as well.

Listening to Enter The Void is like getting a guided tour of the cosmos, except that your tour shuttle crashes on a desolate planet and instead of Carl Sagan’s erudite voice narrating our journey, we have the aphotic melodies of Finnish metal outfit Dark Elite to show us the way from here to GRB 090423.

After starting things off with an intro that consists of a garbled transmission of death and doom, Dark Elite’s density pulls us in with the might of neutron star. They slam you about with a mix of scathing black metal, pummeling melodic death beats, and background ambient dissonance. For me, this five track EP is equal parts Winterthrall’s Nightmares For The Sleepless, Be’lakor’s Stone’s Reach, and Phelios’s Astral Unity (a MASSIVE compliment coming from me).

As I mentioned earlier, Timo Honkanen helms the guitar in this act. I am officially going on record and saying that I want to hear MORE of it. Coupled with Enrico Huovinen’s scorched blasting (again, I’m reminded of Winterthrall), Honkanen’s riffing paints a celestial portrait of a cold, vacuous sector of space were dark metal reigns!

As far as EPs go, this one is definitely one of the better offerings that has come my way in quite some time. Yeah, it’s a little on the short side (as all EPs are), but it gives me a good enough idea as to what to expect from this group when they decide to put out a full-length, hopefully sooner than later.

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Opeth - Blackwater Park (Reissue)

I’ve never fully cared either way about Opeth. I mean, I know that these guys are one of the more polarizing bands in all of metal (and one of the biggest reasons for this is today’s subject of review, Blackwater Park) but I’ve just never cared all that much. It’s not that their brand of melodic death metal/progressive metal was a turn-off or anything, it’s just that I never gave them a chance. I think the closest thing to that “chance” would of been when I took a few extra seconds to figure out what the clerk at the 7-11 was listening to one night. Turns out it was this album and I’m not going to lie, it sounded pretty tempting. I just have a shitty memory and forgot to look it up when I got home. Oh well, if it was really something that amazing, it’d find me later on down the road.

And it did. YEARS later, but it did. The fine folks at The End Records (for some fucking reason) sent me a box of CDs, including the re-releases of Blackwater Park, Deliverance and Damnation (watch for those reviews shortly). So thanks for that!

Anyway, on to the review!

The album itself comes in a glossy case with a fairly thick booklet of liner notes and lyrics! That’s some snazzy stuff right there! Also included on the audio disc is a live rendition of The Leper Affinity that fairs pretty well in the grand scheme of things.

Let’s skip over to Disc 2 (a DVD) for a second. You get the 5.0 Surround Sound version of the album album that, I’m sure sounds fucking amazing on a Bose sound system but not all that great coming through my stock speakers in my $200 Magnetbox. Next up, is the Making Of Blackwater Park documentary. Wow… you may as well of watched them record this album in real time because you learn just as much from the documentary. Very in-depth! The boys Opeth talk about how just about every riff was thought up, every lyric was dreamt of and you walk away learning how every moment was genius.

And with that a little too on the nose segue, let’s go back to the main attraction! Since I never got to listen to Blackwater Park beforehand, I can’t tell you if this version is superior to any of the earlier recordings. What I can tell you is that the sound quality is excellent, period. Starting the album up, I was pretty damned excited. I get to listen to an album that I’ve been unconsciously dodging for a couple of years now (it also helped that since it was for review, I had no choice)! About a quarter of the way into the first track, I knew I was in trouble. Aggressive, progressive, melodic death metal? I messed ‘em…

Lyrically, Mikael Akerfeldt’s words are hauntingly beautiful and terrifyingly surreal at times. They’ll take you all over the goddamned place and drag you through murky waters and barbed brier to get you there. But it’s done in such a way that you’ll ask to go again when all is said and done.

As for the overall musicianship… do I really have to say anything here? Most of you already know that this album owns in just about every aspect. Akerfeldt’s voice is simply perfect for the task at hand. Mellow and clean when needed and an oceanically deep growl for when the moments arise. Mikael and Peter Lindgren’s guitar work is also on par with that of some kind of actual guitar Wizard! It’s all so magical! Every riff (that on occasion are played ad naseum, I’ll admit) sounds like a happiness spell that was cast on my eager, prog loving ears. The acoustic stuff is especially pleasing since it’s not overused and punctuates the ends of the better tracks.

Skinman Martin Lopez dazzles on his set with spellbinding rhythms and manic foot work that pops up out of nowhere. I was incredibly happy to learn that the talent didn’t just reside in the vocals and guitars like everyone I knew tried to make me think. This album HAD TO have a competent drummer to be half as good as everyone says it is. I’m also glad to know that I was right, as I always do. And finally, we have bassist Martin Mendez and his speedy bass lines. Seriously, you don’t catch bass rumblin’s like that in progressive metal all too often (and that’s not often enough if you ask me). This guy might be my favorite progressive/melodic bassist next to Ed Vink.

As I mentioned before, some of the riffs are repeated to the point of me being able to point out that they can be a bit repetitive. But they’re great riffs and maybe they deserve to get pounded into your head! No, forget that. They can get to be kind of irritating. So there you naysayers go. I smudged this album a tiny bit. Ya happy?

Overall: I can honestly say that this album deserves all of the hype that’s been surrounding it for eleven years. It is everything you could possibly ask for in a progressive/melodic experience and more. Sure it’s a bit on the repetitive side, but I think that that is a pitfall that every progressive outfit falls into every once in a while. Aside from that, this re-release of Blackwater Park is a “Must Have” if you don’t already have it and if you do, then I beg you to consider this version if not only for the documentary.

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