Metal Bounty Hunter: Volume 10

Cardinals Folly - Holocaust of Ecstasy & Freedom (2016) / 78%

Shadow Kingdom Records

Holocaust of Boobs and Doom

The third full length album from this Helsinki based trio is their most cohesive, concise and possibly their best one yet. Lead by Mikko Kääriäinen (bass, vocals, songwriting), the band plays this unhinged sort of groovy material with huge guitar hooks and rock hard drums. I always liked the thick Finnish accent in my doom (or heavy metal) and Mikko’s delivery delivers on that front with the way he sings those excellent and fun Lovecraftian occult lyrics. There’s also some harsh vocal moments and I think it adds a certain urgency to the fast paced material (such as the catchy title track).

It’s hard to avoid the Reverend Bizarre analogies since they practice the olde trad doom with the same determination, the same might and the same lack of restraint. They’re perhaps more subdued than the punk fueled inspired doom of Caskets Open though. I like the production, there’s a certain rawness to it that makes the seven songs sound natural and less polished than your usual modern metal. Overall, Cardinals Folly released a melancholic but entrancing record. Recommended for the doom lovers.

Facebook

Red Blade – Powerwalker (2011) / 75%

Defunct but sharp blade

I had this in my review folder for ages but never got around it. The now defunct Connecticut based band was super interesting and it’s a damn shame they broke up before releasing their debut full length album. The Powerwalker EP is a four song heavy metal release with a distinctive sound borrowing influences from thrash, grunge, stoner rock or hardcore punk. At times it sounds the Melvins mixed with The Sword and pure trad heavy metal. The production has the rightful amount of quality and lo-fi-ness to make the songs sound good and immediate and the vocals of Jacob Royer are far from your typical heavy metal delivery, they're gritty and influenced by both stoner metal and, to a lesser extent, southern rock.

It’s often pretty fast stuff with sweet guitar licks, a lot of immediate melodies and you can definitely hear the influences of other original traditional bands such as Blackholicus in there. The first three tracks are all around three minutes and just doesn't mess around with unnecessary stuff, it's to the point raw energy with a live feel. There's a good chemistry between the loud but subtle bass play, the active drums and the sole guitar. The aggressive but well flowing EP ends with an atmospheric (the end of "Cronos) and you're left wanting more but unfortunately, this is the only serving you've been served!Hopefully the guitarist and apparent composer Ben Erickson can come back with a new project one day since this was definitely inspired material.

Bandcamp






Scalare – At the Edge of Darkness (2016) / 77%

Heavy Chains Records

German tempered steel

The German trio plays a primitive form of heavy metal with terrible in a great way vocals and it’s a fun ride into Teutonic evil territories. The ten songs are all fist raising hymns with simple yet super catchy guitar riffs, high pitched vocals that are almost parodic and fast paced NWOBHMish drumming with a rough edge.

Like their colleagues of Heavy Chains (think of Barrow Wight, Angel Sword, Dracula or Tarot), they’re raw examples of what metal means to the most obscure of minds. This is definitely made to remain in the deepest shadows of the genre even if it’s far from being extreme metal. The cheesy spectre of Venom is never too far either, this is just what I’m looking for nowadays, the pureness of heavy metal summoned by bands like Demon Bitch or Iron Dogs (RIP). Scalare unleashed the riffs and know how to write epic and compelling material (the seven minutes “My Journey to the Stars” is certainly a wonderful way to close the record). They might not be for everyone due to the vocals but the veterans of the scene will find something to enjoy here.

Streaming on Bandcamp






El-Ahrairah – El-Ahrairah (2016) / 95%

Raw feels

After countless demos (I’ll admit I haven’t heard any of them), the Minnesota project released their debut full length back in May and it’s surely one of the best black metal albums I’ve heard this year.

What makes this great is the emotional weight of their succinct numbers and the ability to mix the rawness of their black art with an alluring and almost joyful aura. Songs like “Madeline and Edmund” or the calm and soothing moments on “Cut Like Rogues” really bring a gloomy but melancholic atmosphere to the band’s identity. Like some members of the USBM movement, El-Ahrairah does possess some slight punk leanings (listen to “Gates of Dawn”) but it’s also some sort of concise epic black metal with rough but really discernible guitar riffs. They also clearly explore depressive rock territories (à la Lifelover) at times. The mix of sounds is carefully crafted and done with the utmost care and talent.

The vocals are pretty vitriolic and strident in the best way possible, they’re loud in the mix but this impetuous formula works wonder for the thundering and abrasive sound they picked. The band also really shines when they use sparse but totally surprising clean vocals like the end of the superb closer “Rind of the Earth”. There’s nothing wasted on this record, it’s an essential album, really.

Bandcamp




Astronoid – Air (2016) / 50%

Blood Music

The foul air of asinine modernity

The Massachusetts quintet took the thin line between post metal and shoegaze to the next level with their debut album. If you thought metal reached the maximum level of smoothness , well you were wrong. This is by far the least dangerous the genre has ever been. Astronoid took the space metal of Cynic, removed the quasi nonexistent amount of extreme metal they had, they added a super whiny pop punk voice and added competent but out of place blastbeats to the whole thing. While the saccharine voice is certainly a good fit to the post rock core, it’s really damn annoying.

The songs are all dense and they flow really well, this and the true uplifting feel Air has some of the only qualities the band has. If you think Neurosis needed to sound more like Alcest, I guess this is the band for you?

Bandcamp

Local Sounds: Volume 4.0

Christmas is near even if there's snow decorating the streets of Montréal and I felt it was time to deliver the fourth volume of this Local Sounds series. It's a series of short reviews about the best and most interesting non-metal music of Québec and its surroundings, sometimes it's artists in French, sometimes they sing in English but it's always meaningful and deep music. Also, I always try to focus on up and coming bands offering their music for free or pay what you can online. This edition has 4 unique projects all living in the province of Québec.







Le Pélican Noir - Le silence tendu au dessus de nos têtes comme un orage en suspens (2013)

The debut EP by this francophone collective is some sort of highly atmospheric instrumental indie rock/post with slight electronic touches. There's a lot of piano, accoustic guitars, synths, violin and a bunch of other weird instruments. They have the rich, entranced feel of Sigur Ros, the song “La quadrature du cercle” really reminded me of the renowned icelandic band with its subtle keys arrangements. Highly recommended release, it's relaxing in a strange way.

I'm excited to hear their 2015 record that I'll get on Christmas due to the very cool initiative of Poulet Neige. The platform is basically a bunch of local artists giving their music, you pick the number you want and you'll receive the files on the 25th.

More info here : POULET NEIGE

Free download : Le Pélican Noir on Bandcamp




Les Passagers – Le ciel est noir (2014)
Speaking of Poulet Neige, it's because of this website that I've discovered this next band! This quintet led by Andréanne Muzzo (vocals, synths) et Nicolas Ferron (guitars, synths) plays a form of ethereal indie pop with soft and cute vocals by Andréanne. The lyrics in French are lovely, poetic and full of imagery (especially “Acheter ta peau” or “Buy your skin”) but the band is never kitsch or too much despite the 80s synths influence. This will make you feel good in less twenty minutes. It's sunny but not overly so and fits all the seasons we can experience in Montréal.

Free download: Les Passagers on Bandcamp

Barricade – Rapide Sept (2015)
From Rouyn-Noranda (7 hours north of Montréal), this instrumental trio is quite interesting. They're groovy, atmospheric somewhat metallic post hardcore with a lot of feel and a solid, airy production. The songs, almost all titled with names like Tony, Max or Cindy are all quite short and never waste any time getting their point across, they're not a meandering band like many of the post-whatever acts we can encounter nowadays. They remind me a bit of Karma the Burn but without the stoner metal elements, just blistering instrumental energy thrown at you for a short while.

Free download: Barricade on Bandcamp



Nüshu – EP 2014

Sharing two members with Politess (a band featured on Local Sounds volume 3), this unisex project is also fairly weird. The noisy punky alt rock band has shouted, piercing vocals, flowing post punk riffs and groovy drumming. The lyrics in French are absurd or amusingly vulgar (like the surprinsingly aggressive song about the color blue). Fast paced blurbs of controlled insanity is what you'll find here and it's pretty enjoyable! This 10 minutes or so EP is promising and Nüshu is currently working on something new based on their Facebook page

Free download: Nushu on Bandcamp



Stay tuned for volume 5.0 due in early 2016!

Local Sounds: Volume 3.0

 

Tonight's volume is all about bands with some post hardcore elements who are mixing this with a bunch of other styles. There's 3 bands from the glorious city of Montréal and one from Drummondville, enjoy and don't be afraid to send me recommendations! Thanks to Pascalou and Étienne for some of these recommendations.

Atsuko Chiba – Jinn (2013)

One of the best bands in Montréal, Atsuko Chiba (a character in the anime series Paprika apparently) plays a visceral and super interesting blend of experimental rock, post hardcore, post rock with a mix of explosive and atmospheric guitars. It starts with a 5 minutes psychedelic introduction with some flutes and a lot of Gilmour-esque guitar explorations before. There's not a lot of vocals and there's barely a need for them but it's used sporadically and it works well. “Qvox” has this excellent At the Drive-In influence with these almost rapped, almost screamed vocals. The instrumentation is rich, ranging from acoustic guitars to keyboards, there's a lot of stuff going on here. It's mostly contained in short songs for the genre(s) except for the final track “One Big Happy Family” and its 23 minutes length reminding me of the project of Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala formed when ATDI ended, the mighty The Mars Volta. While it drags a little, the instrumental song has a wide array of emotions ranging from almost metallic guitars to softer moments. I have yet to see them live and I must fix that!

Atsuko Chiba on Bandcamp

The Expectorated Sequence 

First Juice [Power] of the Shit (2014) + The Prolonged Disaster (2011)

These dudes are playing some sort of super heavy grindcore with hardcore, screamo and experimental touches. Their songs are obviously short with a devastating production and vicious vocals. First Juice, their fourth album, is more streamlined and angry than the the excellent The Prolonged Disaster which explored post hardcore, screamo and even metal at times more thorougly (listen to a track like “Scum of the Earth”). The francophone quartet (all their lyrics are in English though) has nothing to envy their American rivals, their sound is dark, brooding and has plenty of heavy riffs intertwined with soft, spacey sporadic moments. Both albums are highly recommended but I prefer The Prolonged Disaster due to its versatility. It's insane music that makes you feel good!

Expectorated Sequence on Bandcamp

Nous étions – La manière noire (2014)
Il a des trous dans le ciel!
The screamo/hardcore/post hardcore Nous Étions (we were in English) are about to start recording their debut full length after two pretty good Eps and I'm sure it will be extremely interesting. Their approach is quite lovely, melding harsh but understandable vocals (with poetic French lyrics) with heavy guitars full of feeling that are still incisive enough. There's a lot of introspective moments too like the beautiful “Le Journal De Ricardo Lopez” and while the vocals are constantly on the hardcore spectrum, La manière noire (the black way) is a surprisingly soothing release. The melting pot of genres (minus black metal) isn't quite far from what Deafheaven did with their seminal and future classic Sunbather. 
 
Nous Étions on Bandcamp

Politess – Politess (2015)

The project from Drummondville is, based on their own description, “Everything your mom doesn't like” and unless your mother is into experimental hardcore/crust/rock/grind/metal, they're probably right. Their self titled debut full length is one hell of a trip into their musical dementia. Simply by looking at the songtitles, you know you'll spend a special moment with these guys, songs like “The New Chicken”, “Everything I Touch Turns Lesbo” or “Give Me Back My Virginity” are totally bonkers. They're certainly silly but they know how to compose cool stuff with a lot of tempo changes, groovy riffs and screeching vocals. One of the best bands out of Montréal and recommended if you like a huge dose of what the fuck in your music. There's even some saxophone on “La patère” and this adds a Naked City feel to the whole thing. Politess definitely did their homework while listening to Mr. Bungle and Anal Cunt and I'm giving them an A+.

Politess on Bandcamp