Reviews for August 3rd, 2012
- Details
- Published on Friday, 03 August 2012 11:18
- Written by George Washburn
- Hits: 493
Dust Bolt – Violent Demolition
Dust Bolt is a German thrash metal band and “Violent Demolition” is their first album. Lately, when I see these new-wave-of-thrash bands and they have Ed Repka style cover art I get a little turned off. What was once very cool is starting to become cliché thanks to a slew of mediocre thrash bands. I used to find myself eagerly picking up these albums hoping for a hidden gem, now I more often than not glance at the cover art and move on. Dust Bolt is not part of the mediocre masses. “Violent Demolition” is actually pretty good.
I have seen a number of people make comparisons to Kreator and Slayer, but I want to add a name to the list and throw out Municipal Waste. They certainly do not sound like Municipal Waste all the time, but I do hear a little of that crossover punk cadence in some of the vocal delivery. The songs on “Violent Demolition” certainly sound like old school thrash, but somehow they also feel like a breath of fresh air. I do not mean that it sounds original, (nor do I mean it sounds unoriginal,) but rather the music is simply easy to enjoy. Perhaps it is the element of familiarity combined with a heaping measure of talent.
For a thrash album the production is perfect. Everything about this album tells me we will be hearing more and better things from Dust Bolt in the future. The only thing I have to ask is…what is the name all about? A bolt of dust does not sound very scary or threatening. It sounds like I might need to take a shower, but that is about it lol. Whatever, who cares; I mean what does Metallica mean? Not much (other than biggest metal band in the world.)
I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, what could be better than a bunch of young, long haired Germans playing thrash metal? Into the pit! Here is the track “Violent Abolition.”
Unconsecrated – Awakening in the Cemetery Grave
Hailing from Spain is the death metal band Unconsecrated. “Awakening in the Cemetery Grave” is compilation album which contains the bands first two demos (“Unconsecrated Cemetery” and “Dark Awakening”) with their 2010 EP, “Slave to the Grave.” Since this is a compilation it can be forgiven if the production quality varies across songs from different periods.
Unconsecrated play an old school style of death metal; on the upside this means we get a classic death metal sound without any filler or fluff, on the downside this means there is not much to help identify the band from the thousands of other death metal bands.
I would rate this above average for the genre. This is certainly a very listenable death metal album. The music is good and the vocals, which are of course harsh, are adequate. The production is pretty good given that most of the 18 tracks are from demos. I like the songs on “Awakening in the Cemetery Grave”, particularly given these songs were initially all cobbled together with seemingly very little outside support. Dark Descent seems to have taken them under their wing, let’s see what will come of this in the future.
Here is the track “Temple of Darkness.”
Corrosive Carcass – Composition of Flesh
Corrosive Carcass is death metal band from Sweden (notice I did not say Swedish Death Metal) and “Composition of Flesh” is their first album. The reason I did not refer to them as Swedish Death Metal is because, at least for me, that conjures images of In Flames and Soilwork, which is not anything like the sound of Corrosive Carcass. This is actual death metal, not the Hot Topic-ized version of death metal. This is not to say I do not like those bands, the latest In Flames is awesome, but these are just two very different things.
“Composition of Flesh” has a much rawer sound than the polished offerings from the death metal giants. I love the guitar tone on here and the drums sound loud and punchy rather than buried under a wall of fuzz. The vocals are harsh and guttural and of a style which I particularly enjoy. The album feels wild and raw, yet also tight and cohesive.
Part of me wants to make the same statement I did about Unconsecrated; that they do not have anything that makes them stand out from the masses. This is not entirely true; as I believe Corrosive Carcass have the talent and songwriting ability to be successful. I think it is the death metal style itself which is rather limiting. They play very well within that framework, but by its very nature death metal does not foster the kind of variety that makes bands seem original. So, unless a band is promoted hard by a label with money, quality death metal bands can find themselves wallowing in obscurity alongside lesser quality bands. This kind of sucks.
So let me do my bit to help them get noticed. “Composition of Flesh” is a pretty good album and I think it would be worth your time to give them a listen. Here is “Awesome Nuclear Power.”
Wings Denied – Awake
Wings Denied are a progressive metal/djent band from my neck of the woods, Washington D.C., and “Awake” is their three-track EP. Where do all these local bands play that I never hear about them until I get music sent to me? Wings Denied, King Giant, A Sound of Thunder are all great local bands and yet I never hear about them around town. I suppose this has a lot to do with my hermetic habits.
When something is considered “progressive” I tend to expect something very clean and polished and well produced. I am not going to say that “Awake” is not any of those things, but it has an untamed (I want to say “raw” but feel I have used the word too much lately) quality that, along with some serious guitar crunch, makes this an atypical progressive release.
The vocals are mostly clean (and rather catchy) but they do some harsh vocals as well which also breaks genre stereotype a little. The sound quality of these three songs is pretty good, but I cannot help but feel like the vocals sound a little muffled. Not a big deal, these songs are still a great listen. Check out Wings Denied. Here is the first track, “Maiden.”