Pantheon from Arkansas are relatively new band in the US extreme metal underground scene, this being their second full length opus. But members of Pantheon are in no way new to the scene playing or having played in Empyrean, Genocide Winter, Epoch of Unlight and many more. This one contains 9 songs. The music is that American school of death metal with lots of black metal and thrash metal influences, I can hear Slayer influence in awesome ‘Man-Infestation’. There are blast beats, blistering thrash death solos and brutal growled death metal vocals. But, there are also some epic melodies on this one like in my favorite Absence of Light with that great main guitar melody and this time vocals are black metal screeching not growling. With songs like heavy hitters ‘Death Is In The Air’ or ‘Eviscerate Desecrate Cremate’ there is no mercy, no holds barred blackened death thrash metal and I am really happy having discovered this band. Right on good record.
Sermon are Turkish band hailing from Izmir and their roots date back to 1997, but after a hiatus band reformed and this is their new full length opus. This one offers 8 songs of doom metal, basically it is melodic epic doom metal with lots of gothic influenced parts, also there are some death doom nineties influences, through some UK legendary bands’ influence. Vocals are growled but there are also some gentler clean parts and this growling so fits to guitar melodies that it is perfect. These guitar parts and double bass rolling drums create an atmosphere of darkness that you can almost touch with your hands. Lyrics are about darkness, space, inner demons, emotions deep within and one other plus is that vocalist is mainly understandable in many parts of the songs. There is also violin like for example in Flawless Entropy and calls to mind My Dying Bride, but with more melody and epic parts. Songs are pretty long but do not get boring for one second. My personal favorites on this one are: ‘Silver Splinter’ and ‘Destined To Decline’. This is doom metal just made for listening and daydreaming under steel grey January sky as the cold wind sweeps around you.
Tears of a fallen Hero are proof that Sweden has strong punk rock scene besides great metal bands. With Satanic Surfers, No Fun At All, Millencolin and many other coming to mind, I haven’t listened to Tears of a fallen Hero up to no. These guys are hailing from Gothenburg, home of so many great bands I love, and the idea for band and formation grew in 2017 and this is the band’s debut album out now. This one contains eleven songs of emotional punk with some hardcore and post punk, post hardcore influences. The music is basically melodic punk with excellent vocals which can soar high and low, sounding almost otherworldly and ethereal in many songs. The music is mid tempo with many changes and parts, from slowing down to more uptight punk, guitar lines are great along with synth atmospheric parts especially in ‘Further than i can’, one of the greatest songs on this record in my opinion. Lyrics are personal but smartly written, pure poetry that you can relate to in more than one way. There are also some spacy parts in guitar work, like post punk influenced songwriting and riffing, but remaining enough in punk waters to satisfy your black and red punk rock heart. Songs that I must also mention as being my favorites are ‘My head is my worst enemy’ and ‘Will i ever change’. Conclusion? One more excellent record from Sweden.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 