Metal Bulletin Zine #167 Washington state, US 2/16/2019 (#5 in February)

Downfall of Gaia S.R.L.

Backstabber Ichor

Lance King Maestus

issues of this zine online: www.fuglymaniacs.com

Downfall of Gaia

Ethic of Radical Finitude

Metal Blade Records

Release: 8 February 2019

The duality of the album is very appealing to those listeners that would be willing to allow themselves the pleasure to see what happens when the music goes from grim blasting speed to slower melancholic-melodic moods. The band has dedicated a serious effort to making both sides of the coin be good quality. The fast side has good, subtle melodies that make the music remarkably pleasant. With today’s technology it is possible to have frenzied speeds of grimness, as is often the case here, but make it all sound professional (not homemade/garage recording) and smooth, while retaining the hyper speeds. Sometimes the tremolo picking reworks and elaborates a repeating pattern and make it seem almost hypnotic. The melodies, of course, help to frame the extremity in ways that are surprisingly amenable.

Perhaps a relatively accurate way to get to the melancholic-mellow-melodic side of this album is to say that overriding trait of the music is the continuous, persistent and constant use of notes that evoke various forms of sadness. Once you sign on the dotted line and you say that you do want to dedicate the time to the album, that you want to ride it out and go with it and see where it takes you, then you find the joy in that journey.

It is an ambitious album that works anywhere from melancholy to headbanging moments. It is as if the band were using the principle that an instrument like the guitar can yield music that shares commonalities with an instrument like the piano or cello: the mellow, even relaxing feel, the pensive mood, the somber vibes. The album is 40 minutes long. That’s long enough to present a good, serious challenge, while still maintaining the joy of discovery, and also instigating repeated listens of this gem. downfallofgaia.bandcamp.com/album/ethic-of-radical-finitude

S.R.L.

Hic Sunt Leones

Rockshots Records

Release: 8 February 2019

According to Metal Archives, this band began in 1992, and this is the fourth album, but the music sounds very modern, like an amalgamation of death metal, metalcore, thrash, groove, and melodic death metal all joining together. At times, the riffs sound like big thrashing rhythms to get you moving. Somewhere in there is the energy of the guitar found in both thrash and classic melodic death metal. It’s music that is fun, upbeat and easy to understand as upfront, muscular songs. The fact that they use a melodic style to the thrash riffs makes it all that much easier to get into. The energetic overall sound is helped by the use of the melodies because the album does stay intense throughout.

The vocals are busy-body growling and screaming, with a big metalcore/melodic death metal edge. Fans of the raspy screaming should hear this particular style. On this album the vocals control the feel of the songs because the screaming is right up there with the speed of the drumming and riffing, present constantly. This album is especially recommended for huge fans of the melodic death metal and metalcore screaming. The music ends up as a mix of headbanging, fast songs that have immediate impact, with abrasive, harsh screaming that is designed joyfully to destroy people’s hearing. If you like aggressive growl-screaming and melodic extreme metal, give a listen to this veteran Italian act that has been making noise for decades now.

srlmetal.bandcamp.com/album/hic-sunt-leones-2019

Backstabber

Conspiracy Theorist

Self-Release

Release: 15 February 2019

This album is hard as nails. They do not care for making the music too melodic. It is hard-driving, grooving-thrashing pounding metal. The vocals are super aggressive and

abrasive on the ears. The guitars, bass and drums work in marching unison with the purpose of making you form a moshpit or to jump into one or to make you think that you are going to bench press 500 pounds today and do 100 pull-ups at the gym. If you are driving and are listening to this album, you will probably get stopped by the long arm of the law looking to make you pay some money to the government.

No melodic singing. No sweet whispers in your ears, just aggro-angry metal to rile you up even more about politics, the government and the extraterrestrials. Oh, those extraterrestrials! In the middle of the album there is a quick break of two minutes of mellow, and the last song is a re-laxing tune that shows that these Canadians can be melodic if they want to, but they don’t feel like it. This is a song for cooling down, for af-ter your workout at the gym or after moshing. The band has figured out that they are good at what they do, and they are not going to mess it all up by pretending to be the most eclectic band. Find out what you do well and stick with it. That’s their philosophy. Look into this band if you

enjoy the in-your-face no-nonsense aggro-groove thrash fueled by anger, hatred and high voltage metal. It’s not going to be pretty, and it’s going to be abrasive. backstabbermetal.bandcamp.com

Ichor

Hadal Ascending

Unholy Conspiracy Deathwork / WOOAAARGH

7 December 2018

1.Paradise or Perdition 04:01

2.Tales from the Depths 06:01

3.Black Incantation 03:17

4.In Ecstasy 04:53

5.A Glowing in the Dark 04:08

6.Black Dragons 03:17

7.Architect of the Portal 03:57

8.The March 04:16

9.Children of the Sea 03:09

10.Conquering the Stars 05:55

total time 42:54

This album is compact and efficient, and it has all sorts of goodies that make it enjoyable and headbanging. In this extreme metal album there are various things taking place that make it fun in the way that the songs are constructed. The basic frame of the songs is by itself strong, but the fact that the band has gone beyond the meat and potatoes of the songs and added more elements is what makes it worthwhile. The vocal style is growling, the guitars are tuned down, and the drumming goes into blasting often, although blasting is not the only mode of operation, not at all As a way of illustrating what is going on here, let’s randomly choose songs 4, 5, 6 and 7 and see what they have to offer.

song 4. Some blasting, but also midtempo, with some breakdown chugging. Very nice heaviness and deep growling. The breakdown/chugging sounds awesome, and the use of some subtle melodies really give the song the vibe of both death metal and deathcore heaviness, but with some slight dissonance to great effect. When the song ends, the band takes away the extreme metal, and lets you hear some melodies they used, an example of another layer that has been there in the song, but that repeated listens reveal even more.

song 5. This one is typical of how the band works with different energies and is not afraid to mix it all up in the space of four minutes: slow parts, blasting segments, tremolo picking, super heavy-duty massiveness, low and high growling. How do they do it in four minutes? Well, they do it. It’s not chaotic, but it is kind of crazy, but it works!

song 6. The chugging breakdown parts are so good, with a bit of some good ole pinch harmonics. The blasting parts rock, too, of course. They throw down a bit of guitar hero licks. Overall, however, the guitar melodies coupled with the chugging make this track very fun.

song 7. The band’s ability to go from chugging breakdown to blasting to melancholic slow and back to death metal chugging moshpit heaven is a pretty cool thing. They don’t hesitate to inject blasting parts and their drummer certainly knows how to work in that pocket. As the song heads to the final lap, they hit you up with some monk chanting, yes, monk chanting, as they take out the song.

Conclusion. The songs are concise and efficient as can be. They find a way to stay on point even when they can do it all, reworking all sorts of styles into a coherent whole. Surprisingly fun. ichormetal.bandcamp.com

Maestus

Deliquesce

code666

8 February 2019

This band must have pondered for a long time the question: What do you have to do if

your objective is making your music sound, above all, beautiful? You already know how

to be heavy. You already know to how growl like lion and you already know how to do

raspy vocals. If you wanted to, you know to how do sick black metal. You already know

to do death doom. You figured out how to sound somber. You know all this. Heavy.

Slow. Growling. Fast parts. All those bases are covered. Now how do you go about

making it beautiful? Or at least, beautiful to fans of metal and doom, given that beauty

is in the eye of the beholder?

This is how they solved the riddle that

they put before themselves. The guitars

stay away from abrasive, loud obnoxious

pounding groove or power chord

rhythms, and focus on developing slow

or midtempo melodies that make possi-

ble a quick understanding of what one is

hearing. It is pleasant, mellow, soothing

sounds, not overpowering loudness. The

music doesn’t ask you to be quick or be dead, it asks you to settle down and enjoy the

melodies. It doesn’t demand that you love it or leave it, it is patient with you, and gives

the room and time to figure out the epic heaviness at hand.

Growling in metal in general is harsh on the ears, though it may sound good to the

people who are already fans of it. Screaming has the same problem. This album does

have a bit of black metal raspy vocals, but the band is keenly aware that they have to

be careful with it. Therefore, they couple it with the lower growling to soften the

harshness in order to steer it towards elegance in doom. The main vocal style is the low

growling that is present as a vibe, a mood, a gentle monster, if you will, not as a shock

to the ear. With such an album, and given that the band is already big time on this

road, they would benefit from allowing themselves even more freedom by letting the

melodies stand out even more. The keyboards work well with the album and it would

be great to go at it and use them on a more upfront or at least on a more constant

basis throughout the songs. This album is recommended highly to devoted fans of

death doom, especially fans of the melodic-melancholic elegant-sublime kind of death

doom. maestus.bandcamp.com/album/deliquesce

Lance King

ReProgram

Nightmare Records

Release: 29 March 2019

1.ReProgram 03:26

2.Pointing Fingers 05:26

3.Stand Your Ground 04:13

4.Technology 06:45

5.Reaction Formation 05:28

6.Limitless 05:18

7.Wide Open 05:02

8.Chaotica 04:16

9.Spell of Domestication 05:26

10.Perfect World 04:35

11.A Mind at War 09:58

total time 59:53

The singer Lance King has an incredible discog-

raphy that fans of melodic and progressive

heavy metal really owe it to themselves to spend

the time investigating all the albums in which he

has sung. Blessed with a very pleasant singing

voice, and no doubt the result of lots of hard

work, King brings a lot of life to the music. On

March 29th, 2019 King will have a new album

called ReProgram that lasts about an hour. The prog power fan that is new to the works

of King should start here and hear this most recent work, while those already familiar the

artist will be pleased to hear the talent and quality.

These songs illustrate where King is musically in 2019. The voice has always been high

and smooth, and in the past on some albums the voice has gone very high. On this

album the voice is still high, as usual, but it is slightly lower in tone. Each song has high

spots in the choruses that contrast a bit more with the lower range used for the verses.

Keep in mind that King has been singing with bands since at least the middle of the

1980s, but probably years before that. That’s a whole lot of singing experience, skills and

knowledge under the belt. King’s voice has always sounded fresh and young, perhaps

he always has been blessed with smooth pipes, and on this album the voice sounds

healthy and strong.

The music is melodic and catchy progressive traditional heavy metal. It uses prog rock,

classic and hard rock tropes as part of the overall framework of the songs. For instance,

on the song “Technology” there is a guitar solo with a tapestry of the blues and classic

rock, done so subtly. It’s a nice space rock moment in a song with a catchy chorus. The

point here is that there are different layers on the album, but it’s all done under the

umbrella of melodic heavy metal. Given that King has invited various friends to

contribute on the album, there are some small and interesting differences in the songs

that happen naturally from having different personalities involved.

This album is a coherent presentation of music that features stories about the need for

new ways of thinking. King has often been concerned with lyrics that say, if the world

seems like a mess, just take a look at the mind. In King’s perspective, people are driven

by the belief that we know everything, that we are our own gods. We reap hatred,

arrogance, pride, addictions, misery, the love of money and other evils because it’s

what we have sown. That’s King’s point, to reboot our ways of thinking, as the album

title says. www.LanceKingMusic.com

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metal programs in Washington (Pacific Times)

Excuse All the Blood (Olympia, WA): Friday night 10pm-1am www.kaosradio.org

Metal Shop (Seattle, WA): Saturday 10pm-3am KISW 99.9fm www.kisw.com

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