Danes SLAEGT are back with their new, full length opus number four. These guys have been around more than a decade and this new one represents the current state of the band playing a rather progressive version of black death metal with some thrash metal guitar solos here and there that sound fantastic. Blast beats are smartly thrown in, the whole songwriting capabilities of Slaegt are impressive, because although guitar work may sound a bit chaotic and dissonant upon first listening, as you delve deeper into the songs of this opus, you realize the greatness you are witnessing. I love stop and go aggression of Kiss from a Knife, but one can not mistake old school metal influences in my personal favorite Hunt Again. I also love above all the title song being so epic that I listened to it over and over again. Vocals tell another story, from death metal growls to some black metal screaming, those vary depending on song atmosphere and need. This album has a perfect might to enter your mind and make you hungry bloodthirsty beasts, but also to satisfy your emotions and calm your blackened old metal heart. Good one indeed.
I never thought much of Nirvana, although I recognize and acknowledge what they did for rock music. But, Dave Grohl was always an interesting character, because he came from hardcore punk scene to grunge which I despised much when I was a kid growing up, still despise it. Luckily, grunge died, but Dave has gone on to bring other wonderful bands and create music, namely Probot and most of all, Foo Fighters. Although Foo Fighters were not my choice and cup of tea, when I read books about music, I create kind of soundtrack listening to music that I read about. Thus, I learned to appreciate and love Foo and all their melodies and songs that are really written nice. This book is a biography about life and musicianship of Grohl since his early hardcore punk beginnings with Scream in Washington DC, to Nirvana, coping with death of Cobain, then going on and becoming one of the most revered and famous rock musicians in the world. This book is not top of the mountain, there are some parts that are somehow lame written and kinda too shallow, but it was in all fun to read. What I love is, that this book ends when Dave stiil will have so much to say and play. Hats off to the man, not so much to this book which could have been better.
I always loved the concept of split releases since the early days of my punk hardcore upbringings along with metal, I always loved split demos, split lp-s and I actually released couple of split demos diy with bands that I was a part of back in the days. So, I was glad when this split release fell into my claws. Skognatt is a one man black metal entity from Germany and their side of this opus contains three songs. Skognatt plays black metal, but besides atmospheric black that is a foundation I can also hear post metal melancholy, even gothic influences in Volcano. The Swarm is more so to say classic black metal oriented song, fast and straightforward, but also has some atmospheric guitar only parts towards the end of the song. Tornado, third and final song finishes this side like it started, atmospheric and aggressive. Wehmut´s side of opus also contains three songs. Wehmut is hailing from Germany and plays more depressive side of black metal with lyrics in German language which I understand so Traum(Dream) is a song which is fast, almost ritualistic in its repetition and has such beautiful, dreamy, like title says main guitar melody. Wehmut´s songs are long and express all the anguish and pain, such bliss to listen to the material. Krank(Sick) is for me the best song on this opus, being melodic and having that doomy vibe, but also up tempo and having unmistakable black metal core, making my skin crawl with delight. Todeswunsch(Death Wish) ends this opus and it plays with the idea that dying is torture but maybe not something so bad and ugly, depending on the way you check out. Wehmut´s side of the opus is a bit better but that is only my taste.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 