Grafting together the rough edges of grunge and neck-cramp grooves of proggy metal, with ‘Make Believe’Surplus gathers up the last few scraps of human decency and reassembles the shreds into a world beyond recognition, beyond facts. This song encapsulates that unnamed feeling in your belly, that nagging voice in the back of your skull you can’t quite recognize. How do you escape a loop you built your whole world around?
Surplus is a Jyväskylä, Finland based two piece rock band founded in 2016. Following two EPs in 2017 and 2018, the duo released their debut record ‘Hindsight’ in 2020. The band scavenged shows where possible throughout the pandemic and released one single ‘Wannabe’ along with a music video. Make Believe is a sign of things to come for the band: Surplus is the best around and they show it.
Ihsahn, norveška black metal legenda i frontman jednog od najutjecajnijih black metal bendova ikada, Emperora, daleko je dogurao u svojoj solo karijeri. Nakon zadnja dva EP-a, evo nam i novog koji se sastoji od tri pjesme u prepoznatljivom Ihsahnovom miksu black metala i to njegove progresivnije verzije, kao i prog metala, rocka i odličnih klavijaturskih pasaža, kao što je i ovdje slučaj u pjesmi ‘Contorted Monuments’ koja je moj osobni favorit uz udarničku catchy ‘The Observer’ koja odlično miješa Ihsahnove black metal vokale sa clean odličnim glasom gosta Øysteina Heide Aadlanda. Ako se netko nadao da je Ihsahn stao ili počeo izdavati nekakvu mekanu glazbu vara se, ovo je ekstremni progresivni metal par excellence, sa ponekim elektroničkim izletom i catchy melodijom kao što je zarazna ‘Dom Andra’. Dakle, opet je riječ o odličnom EP-u, ali mislim da bi bilo već vrijeme za full length opus kojeg Ihsahn nije izdao od 2018. Siguran sam da će biti odličan, kao što su i zadnja tri EP-a.
I really can’t believe how I missed this band and not listening to their opus until now. Ne Obliviscaris released their fourth full length opus finally, after all the trouble with pandemia and shit around the world which delayed recording and production of this beauty. This one contains six songs, which are longer in duration but in no way boring for one second. Music is for me a mixture of progressive metal and melodic death doom metal with violin adding to sombre and melancholic touch of the whole atmosphere. I love the interplay between Tim Charles’ clean vocals rich with melody and growls of other vocalist Xenoyr. I love the concept of ‘Misericorde I’ and ‘Misericorde II’ a kind of heart of this album, at least for me. Lyrics deal with death, decay, grief as doom themes and battles and mythological stories as part of more prog, even power metal backgrounds in some songs. Anyway, this album is the one you should listen as a whole and not in parts, because only then you will understand the grandeur behind it and how beautiful metal music can take you somewhere else.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 