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...

Ancient Wind On Facebook

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!

At The Seams On Facebook

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.

Xibalba On Facebook

Lord Dying - Poisoned Altars

Genre: Sludge Metal
Label: Relapse Records

Ah, Portland. Home to Voodoo Doughnuts, entitled bicyclists, The Roseland and far too many sludge/doom metal bands. Seriously, the city is crawling with them. I always figured that we'd be known as a thrash or speed metal town before anything else. Eh... at least, that was what I was thinking before I played Lord Dying's sophomore album, Poisoned Altars. Well, I still think that there are too many sludgey/doomy type bands in the area. Only now, I just really dig one more of them (the others being Deep Sea Vents, Red Fang, YOB and Agalloch... those all count, right?).

Poisoned Altars forces you to bang your fucking head (thankfully it allows you the option of wall or no wall) with it's HEAVY riff driven songs. So much so that I managed to work up a sweat while doing so. This may be the first album that gave me a fucking workout! That being said, the riffin' is definitely the strongest aspect of Poisoned Altars. Songs like, '(All Hopes Of A New Day)... Extinguished' and 'The Clearing At The End Of The Path' are prime examples of C. Evans lead guitar work and vocalist E. Olsen's rhythm guitar work. His vocals are also nothing to sneeze at. Yeah, they're not anything you probably can't do yourself, but this just fucking sells it! Olsen stays steady with a gruff bellow for most of the album, but occasionally he breaks off into a raspier vocal that isn't quite singing or shouting. (I dunno, you tell me what I'm supposed to call it...)

I'm not trying to sell the rest of Lord Dying short here. Rob Shaffer's drumming is fun and at times can even be a little on the experimental side of wild and crazy. Now, I'm not sure if it was my head phones of if it's the mixing, but I had one hell of a time isolating the bass. However, from what I can tell, it's right were it needs to be. (Kinda the lot of the bassist, eh?) It really sucks that I couldn't make it out since I assume that it's on par with the rest of Lord Dying's sound and is just as deserving of this praise.

I highly recommend Poisoned Altars to anyone who digs their sludge on the lighter side of serious, heavy on the heavy and less than zero fucks given about it. Lord Dying bathes in the puddle of muck that is thier genre and ends up leaving it sludgier than they found it!

Lord Dying on Facebook

Eye Of Solitude - Dear Insanity (EP)

Genre: Dark Ambient, Doom
Label: Kaotoxin Records

I was introduced to this band through Apoch (yeah! THAT Apoch from Apochs.net!) a couple of weeks ago and haven't been able to properly shake the memory of the intense ride that today's review subject sent me on. I mean, look at the band's name: Eye Of Solitude. It elicits thoughts of barren lands, emptiness and abandonment. The perfect moniker for the band responsible for the creation of Dear Insanity, a ballsy effort consisting of a single, forty-nine minute track that mixes a dark ambient base with segments of hammering doom.

The opening to Dear Insanity is pretty much how most dark ambient experiments begin: a spacey, airy mesh of static and dull tones. But after about a minute, the horizon expands and a wide open sound emerges out of nowhere. That airy atmosphere that you were settling into becomes progressively claustrophobic and the world begins to decay and crumble around you as the minutes pass by...

And then, at the 8:29 mark,  the walls of my tiny, fragile world were ripped open as the Earth began to shake and the sky boiled away to reveal a blood red infinity that loomed over me like the great perching Doomthulhu! Eye Of Solitude break away from the ambient drones and finally say 'Hello' to insanity! HEAVY chords slowly riff their way across the cosmically irradiated soundscape to the pounding of a post-apocalyptic beat. It's the soundtrack to the deathmarch of the mentally afflicted, at this point. (A congested conga line I would undoubtedly find myself in... oh well. At least the tunes are badass!)

Daniel Neagoe's vocals range from a barely audible whisper, to a very high in the mix clean, to a vicious shriek at strategic points during this EP. The mixing proves to be only slightly problematic once or twice and it mainly has to do with the vocals overpowering everything else. But that's just me pissin' on about nothing since the rest of the forty-eight some odd minutes are a flawless work of art.

Eye Of Solitude on Facebook

Seizure Crypt - You've Been Had!

Genre: Hardcore, Metal, Punk
Label: Independent

It’s been a while, but hitting play on Seizure Crypt’s latest testament to the D.I.Y. lifestyle, "You’ve Been Had," is like reconnecting with an old friend. That may seem weird to anyone who knows about my older reviews (back at E-Metal Reviews/E-MetalSpace) of their albums, "Hello My Name Is… MADNESS" and "Under The Gun" since I barely gave the first one a chance and said that the second, “only kind of sucks”. But here, wherever I am and in whatever year this is, I’ve grown older and wiser. And guess what? I think I’ve spent enough time in the Crypt to understand what these motherfuckers are all about!

Where to start…

Well, I guess I can address the fact that this album does, in fact, sound like it was recorded using Do It Yourself methods, but by guys who’ve been doing this sort of thing for a while. Yeah, the sound can be a little rough and grainy at times, but Seizure Crypt seems to know how to tweak it to their advantage. That or their music is so full of “FUCK YOU!” that even sound itself bent the laws of physics to accommodate their hardcore lifestyles! I’m going to go with that last one.

Normally, you don’t go into a Seizure Crypt album thinking that it’s going to be a mind-blowingly awesome experience with complex riffs and off-time drumming… and this album is no exception. It’s just simple but entertainingly aggressive punk/hardcore tunes that will be the perfect soundtrack to a wild and drunken night of slamming people through bar furniture! Also note that both vocalists give there all to shout, bark and psychotically rant their message at you in the scuzziest, most street level way possible! It has become a matter of charm at this point, believe it or not. I’ll probably be cutting this review short since my hard-on for these guys keeps growing and I can’t bring myself to understand why exactly… The guys in Seizure Crypt do what they do because they love to do it. If more bands were like this, then there would be better music all around for everybody!

I’ve since gone back and listened to my other two Seizure Crypt albums and I can safely say that "You’ve Been Had!" is the best offering to date. If you’re a fan of the D.I.Y. spirit, pick up this album (and maybe the others later) and bang your skull until that gray mush comes out! And remember, “Life is not a fad you fucking poser!” Throw yourself into the Crypt!

Seizure Crypt Homepage

An Interview With Scott Mosher of Oceans Of Night (from 2009)

Typhon: First off, thanks for agreeing to this interview Mr. Mosher. Where did the name Oceans Of Night come from and why didn’t you go by it sooner? (lol)

Scott Mosher: Good question and one I've wondered many times recently myself. I should have operated under a good band name from the beginning but I didn't really think I'd release 5 CDs over the years. In hindsight Oceans of Night should be stamped all over my name on all the covers and PR materials, at least since Virtuality in 2001. The name Oceans of Night actually was a song title I have in the archive. It's kind of fitting actually... mysterious, enigmatic, somber and slightly poetic. I think it represents the music and my lyrical/graphic concept rather well. I'm not sure it screams "metal" like Metallica does, but the artistic association is there.

T: While we're on the subject, where did the title, "The Shadowheart Mirror" come from?

SM: You know, I'm not really sure. It's kind of an abstract concept. To expound upon that, the mirror is literally a reflection of one's sense of self, or state of mind. The shadowheart concept is a metaphor for turmoil and times of despair and anger. In other words, it represents the recurring lyrical themes on the CD, which are based upon the personalization of relationship strife and personal anguish in coming to terms with life during a dark period. I'm glad you asked though, because it's become quite theraputic for me to contemplate the reason and meaning behind the title.

T: When did you start on your path as an uber talented musician? Did you have a nurturing/musical upbringing?

SM: I commenced on my path to uber talented musician upon graduation from uber talent school. That is right before my attendance at the Derek Zoolander school. Honestly, I'm not sure. There's plenty of more talented folks out there, I guess I just have enough talent to fuel my artistic ambitions, but not enough to make me dangerous. Between music and my day job as a graphic artist, I'm knee deep in the arts. I think my lack of any kind of technical acumen speaks volumes about where my focus in life should be. I've been involved in music on a personal level probably since grade school to be honest, and it just grew out and onward from there. I definitely focused on my artistic and musical abilities as best I can, but it's something I'm constantly trying to improve upon as well.

T: I once read a review of Deep Horizon where the guy who reviewed it threw a bitch fit that it wasn’t thrash or something along those lines since your name is "Mosher." Is that a common misconception, or is he a lone ballbag on this one?

SM: I think you just coined a term that needs to find its way into the next edition of the Collegiate dictionary, "ballbag". I've gotten used to folks assuming my last name is a pseudonym or a PR creation, but I assure you and ballbag out there, that my official last name is indeed Mosher, although it's prounced "mow" and not "mosh". Use a french accent and you'll be on the money, though I'm not french. As far as reviews are concerned, I post any and all I get in their entirety on my website(s). No problem there. Good bad or indifferent, if someone takes the time to review my stuff, I'll make sure I post it.

T: How did you hook up with Scott Oliva? Was it easy getting him to do the vocals on your projects?

SM: I'm not sure what you are implying there but I'm not sure I like the tone of your voice or the insinuation. Haha! As far as the manner in which I enlisted Mr. Oliva to join my on my musical voyage you'll have to peruse the liner notes of the Oceans of Night CD, but let's just say it concerns questionable Myspace photos!

T: Have you ever considered forming and/or joining a band instead of being a (mostly) solo project? Or is the freedom (as is my understanding) of being a solo project just to great to let go of? …or are you just an uncompromising asshole that won’t let anyone get an idea in edgewise? (LOL Only kidding!) And is there a specific recording process that you favor, or are you constantly experimenting (as your music suggests)?

SM: There is, but it's fairly straightforward. My process is compose, arrange and record the songs, construct and record the guitar solos, work on vocal tracks and lyrical concepts with Mr. Oliva and then mix/engineer the CD in an outside studio (Freedom of Speech with my dawg, Micky James), replicate, and enter the marketplace and shameless self-promote. Believe me the music is where all the experimentation takes place, man.

T: Are you wondering why SPV/InsideOut Music didn’t snatch you up? Or am I the only one here? (lol)

SM: I'm wondering the same thing! ;-) I have some opinions on why I've not been able to secure a record deal... some of it is in my control, some not, but I'm not really doing this for profit. It would be nice, and I'll take the exposure a label can generate, but I'll keep plugging away with or without the support of any kind of financial backing. I think operating under a proper band name is one step in the right direction, though! Honestly, I've tried and I will continue to work that aspect of promotion, but believe me, I'm not bitter or resentful in the least.

T: Is there anything you’d like to add for the audience?

SM: I'm gratified by your kind words and enthusiasm, and even more appreciative of the fact I didn't have to pay you to say any of these things. For the uninitiated out there or folks who are interested in music that skews slightly left of center, musically of course, surf on over to oceansofnight.com. Thanks for your time, consideration and attendence.

Oceans Of Night on Facebook
Oceans Of Night Homepage