South America has such vast and great underground scene unexplored enough by us Europeans and I love some of the great bands I discovered digging through underground and finding something I enjoy and like. Plaguestorm are hailing from Argentina and were formed in 2014. This is basically two guys band with Sebastian Pastor handling bass, guitar and drumm programming, and Alex Richichi handling vocal duties. What do we have here? This is band’s third full length opus and it contains eleven songs of pure energy. It has been out for couple of months but there is always time for mentioning good music, eh? The music of Plaguestorm somehow divides them from rest of melodic death metal scene because of their songwriting and diversity in song structures. The guitar work is epic, full of nice melodies and atmosphere, somehow bleak, yet it drives you to go on and find strength in yourself for continuing and fighting on. Lyrics are in English and deal with some personal stuff, also through the lines there are couple of issues that need to be addressed in today’s world. Here I must totally deliver a massive praise to the vocal lines. They are so diverse, from standard death metal aggressive growling to beautiful exquisit clean melodic vocal lines and also some black metallish screams here and there, and these vocals in combination with music left me jaw dropped and made me love this record so much and pressing me on to learn more about this band and listen to earlier opus. Personal favorites on this one are: The Void, How Could She Know? and Empty Eyes. I really, really enjoyed this one and I recommend it.
Lore je one man band koji dolazi iz UK, a djelo je entiteta poznatog samo pod imenom Zaza. Ovo je drugi EP ovog benda i sadrži 4 pjesme u trajanju oko 25 minuta. Ovdje je riječ o agresivnijem i sirovijem black metalu s podosta brzine i blasta, ali ima uleta sporijeg atmosferičnog ritma i ponešto lijepe melankolične melodije, ali agresiva prednjači, mogao bih nazvati ovaj EP i nekako old school nineties black metalom. Vokal je ekstreman, ali ne previsok, sasvim pristaje muzici i produkciji koja je onako prljava DIY, ali sve se čuje taman koliko treba. Tekstovi? E sad, pogodite koji je smisao tekstova u naslovima stvari kao što su Astral Blood of Dead Stars, Neolithic Druid Burial Chamber, Psychotic Trance of the Black Nights, te Eclipsed by Celestial Portals of Psychosis. Osobni? Vjerojatno. Ritualistički i okultni? Vjerojatno. Ima i nešto malo synth uleta na drugoj pjesmi gore navedenoj. Ovdje znači na ovom EP-u ne nalazi ne ništa epohalno novo, ali riječ je o kvalitetnom black metalu pravog DIY underground borca.
Dayal Patterson je engleski novinar i osnivač odličnog labela Cult Never Dies putem kojeg izdaje knjige i radi distro muzike i majica. Ovaj fanzin je zapravo ono što piše u naslovu, preludij za njegovu trilogiju knjiga o black metalu. Fanzin je odlično napravljen, kao prava mala knjiga. Sadrži odlične interviewe s veličinama kao što su Mayhem, Beherit, Archgoat, Skitliv, Hades Almighty, Gorgoroth, Marduk, Impaled Nazarene, Sigh, Enthroned i Taake, dakle same legende i kulti bendovi. Posebno bih istakao odličan interview sa Frostom, legendarnim bubnjarem Satyricon i 1349. Tu je i meni jako zanimljiv scene report finske black metal scene. Lako se čita, interviewi nisu dosadni i relativno se brzo pročita pošto 64 stranica. Uz muzičke interviewe tu je i odličan artwork kao što se može već vidjeti na naslovnici zinea. Ovo je prava preporuka da se čita redoslijedom knjiga koje ćemo predstaviti u Kraykulli u bliskoj budućnosti. Ja sam svoj primjerak nabavio u knjižari Rockmark u Zagrebu, pa ako te zanima nabavi možda im je ostao koji primjerak.
