Companion is Austrian hardcore band from Vienna, formed in summer of 2012. They released two ep-s and one album until this second effort that came out last month on Australian label 1054 Records. The five piece from the beautiful town of Vienna play so called Vienna style hardcore, with heavy beating grooves and some fast parts. The music is very heavy and brutal but also played from the heart. The lyrics are of mostly in English and deal with never giving up through the heart times and motivating the listener to fight and go on. The lyrics also deal with concerns over right wing activism blossoming all over Europe and about refugee crisis and stuff like that…The album contains 10 songs +intro and outro. Some of the album highlights are the title track with its motivational lyrics and captivating groove but also heavy riffs. The outstanding tracks are also “Cold Concrete” and “The Enemy” featuring Mike from Only Attitude Counts as guest performance. For me the absolutely best song on this album is the closing track “One Life” that is true hardcore anthem. This record is great piece of European hardcore.
Everyone knows that Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein played the guitar with horrorpunk legends and godfathers The Misfits. Following the departure from The Misfits, he formed Gorgeous Frankenstein, band that mixed horrorpunk with metal and out of the ashes of that band came Doyle, new band and this is their second album. Almost all of the 13 songs on this record are four years old and the material on this album was created at almost same time as the first album. I didnt like the first album much, it had some good songs but this one is a killer! Featuring excellent musicianship by Doyle, Alex Wolfman Story(Cancerslug) on vocals, Brandon Strate(They Live) and Brandon Pertzborn(Black Flag, Revolution Mother), this record is one metal horror bomb which you are compelled to listen again and again! From the melodic opener “Kiss Me As We Die” featuring guest vocals by Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy to the more Cancerslug-like “Witchcraft” over thrash metal attack “King Of The Undead” and punkish “Run For Your Life”, this album has no fillers and it is one of the better albums that I have listened this year in this horrorpunk/metal genre! Check it out!
Who would have thought that this is already twelfth studio album for these Floridian deathsters. Formed as a side project for then Cannibal Corpse singer Chris Barnes, they evolved in one of the top death metal acts in the world. They had some lineup changes but the only constant in the band vocalist Chris Barnes kept them together through the years. There are 12 new songs on this record done in a new lineup with the new drummer. The lyrical themes are gore and horror stuff as always but in my opinion, the music is the problem. The music is typical death metal, a bit fast blastbeats and then a bit slow and midtempo. I loved and still love the first two records, “Haunted” and “Warpath” because they were not your typical death metal. Nowadays, this band is only one of the many death metal bands that sound the same and they kinda drowned in mediocrity or maybe lost ideas how to make great stuff like they did in the past. Not a bad record, but only average.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 