Qwälen are hailing from Helsinki/Oulu area in Finland and this is their new record out with Time To Kill Records. This band plays their vision of black metal, raw and uncompromising, often blistering fast and aggressive, but there are lots of hardcore punk influences in the song structures, but to me this music leans more on black metal side of things. Guitars are raw, vocals screaming tortured black metal screams yet they fit perfectly to the music and aggression, but also melancholic, saddened melodies behind the overlayers of drama, that only Finnish bands are capable of providing such melancholy and emotions behind the music. There are seven songs on this opus, with titles all being in Finnish language so I don´t really understand what the lyrics are about, but let the power of music speak for itself. For me the best songs on this record, being my personal favorites are Han Ei Tule Koskaan and Unohdan Sinut. Superb album.
Pando are entity hailing from USA and this is their new record with Aesthetic Death. What do we have here? This music and this record is definitely not for everyone. These 9 tracks are a soundtrack to apocalypse and ending of the world and I love it. Pando play experimental drone/ambient black metal and noise with some sludge influences thrown here and there in the songs like on of my favorites Total Station Theodolite. What I love is a use of samples together with dark ambient and drone noises, coupled with whispers and screams and it reminds me of some broken down tv that stayed playing after the apocalyptic ending of humanity and it keeps repeating some residual nightmares over and over again. Vocals are screamed, guttural and music is black metal in its foundation, but so much more indeed. There is aggression, there is atmosphere and there is darkness that can almost be touched if you reach out with your hand and close your eyes and open your mind to this dark and beautiful opus. Great record indeed.
Today´s featured band is Texas based melodic black death metal entity called Sinira. It has been active in the scene since 2016 and is a brainchild of one Knell who handles all the instruments and vocals. Northern Silence Productions released debut full length album and it contains eight songs in just about less than one hour duration. I love melodic black death metal in the vein of Gothenburg styled bands like Dissection, Gates of Ishtar, Dawn and similar European acts meaning aggressive and fast paced black death metal with superb guitar melodies and hooks, dark and melancholic, also epic vibe to the songs and lyrics that are personal yet also in your face in a way if you read between the lines. This album was pure energy bomb when I first listened to it and I gladly return to music of Sinira ever so often because it is a lesson how to write and play perfect album with no fillers, only dark energy, cold yet warming to your old blackened metal heart. My personal favorites are: Gardens of Pestilence, Tear Ladened Skies and Our Final Nightfall. Epic album.
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