Voelker are hailing from USA and I must admit that I don’t really know much about this band besides that this is their brand new opus containing eleven songs. Music can be described are American school of thrash metal, Bay Area style, but also having a lot of other influences. For example I can hear NWOBHM in some guitar work, also there are lots of prog metal elements in songwriting, but making it more interesting to listen to. Lyrics deal with some personal stuff, but also with lots of current world themes, survival, war, politics, corruption and having almost punk political vibe. One of my personal favorites for sure is ‘One Percent’ being almost ballad at the start of the song, but evolving into angry thrash metal with mid tempo to double bass insanity mayhem. Guitar solos are great in all songs, having that melodic hooks and vibes, vocals also fit perfectly to this kind of metal. Some other songs mentioned as highlights are ‘Put’Em All To Sleep’, ‘Good As Gone’. Great and varied album.
Montreal based Iron Asparagus released their new debut e.p. containing four songs. I love album and song titles like this one, so it was a hitter. This one starts aggressive in thrash metal vein but continues as kind of melodic doom on choruses and later on in the song, the title song is a hit and I like it very much, kind of like Overkill meets Sabbath patchwork. ‘Orbitoclast’ starts a bit atmospheric almost ballad like, continuing in the vein of stoner grease mixed with thrash metal. But, basically this song is ballad sometimes reminding me of Queensryche but maybe that is only me hearing that. ‘Mr.Molotov’ has eerie atmosphere with that melody being sung quietly in the start and end of the song and although not fast, it is probably the heaviest song on the record. Heaviness continues with ‘Diamond In The Dirt’ being somehow classic Bay Area influenced thrash metal with all the best this genre provided, also with some death metal growls in the vocals. Great debut.
Time for another band from our Croatian scene to grace the pages of this webzine. Dying East are coming from Županja, Croatia and this is their debut album release. This one contains 8 songs, Members of this band are veterans from many bands coming from that area. Fascinating such small town and so many great bands came from there in last twenty or even twenty five years. Someone should write a book about that phenomena. Anyway, these guys play wicked version of death thrash metal with some melancholic and epic guitar melody underneath it all like in one of my favorites Devil In The Skies. Music is mainly fast but changes from aggression to melody and back again to aggressive thrash death passages coupled with hardcore punk roots of the guys who played in many previous bands that influenced their music. Some songs also remind very much of Swedish school of death metal. Lyrics are in English and are pretty allegoric and personal but not something that I can not relate to. This is superb debut album and I wish all the best to the guys from the band. Hats off!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 