This Week in Metal, 2023 Week 7
- Trans-dimensional Being of Extreme Punctuation
- Feb 19, 2023
- 9 min read
This post collects the reviews posted to Instagram for the week. They cover mostly metal, but other genres might be considered. Blog exclusive reviews from other writers are featured, as well.
Scuttlegoat's Curmudgeonly Critiques
Conjureth - The Parasitic Chambers
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Rotted Life
Release Date: 23-01-2023
As I am currently involved in a listening project where we grind through the most important of classic Death Metal albums (coming soon to this very blog), I think a lot about what separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to Death Metal. It seems that every month - sometimes every week, even - there is a new flavor of the week Death Metal album generating hype. Many of these do nothing for me and I often reference the fact that these aren't doing much new and I could just as well reach for the classics and have a better experience. However, every so often, one comes along that, while also not doing anything particularly new, does connect with me. Conjureth is such a case.
Conjureth are certainly talented. The band deals in a type of auditory chaos that could just as well be considered sloppy but that adds to the experience here - an album so aggressive and wild, bursting at its seams, that the musicians can barely hold it together. Again, this is all interpretation and I have in the past dissed similar albums for their sloppy performance. Energy is another such point, as I can't pinpoint while the foreward playing performance of Conjureth is better than many of their contemporaries with similar energy. The album takes a bit to get going, but almost improves because of it as it seems that there is an arc of escalation to the album. I might have called it frontloaded, did I not enjoy the experience. I believe the chaotic nature of the performances and riffing helps, to be honest. Conjureth are rather traditional and as many modern acts, they mix and match their influences rather freely. Whereas in most modern OSDM, I feel inclined to pinpoint what original song is being turned into a pastiche, that feeling never really comes up with Conjureth. I never quite expect where it is going and every section doesn't leave me enough time to think about what came before. Minor quibbles hurt the experience - like the Death/Doom of closer "The Unworshipped II", which the album doesn't prepare the listener for. But overall, I wish Death Metal could offer an experience like this more: just being good enough that being extravagant is superfluous.
Rating: 7/10
Sarcoptes - Prayers to Oblivion
Genre: Progressive / Symphonic Thrash Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Release Date: 24-02-2023
When I was but a wee goat kid, clad in camouflage shorts and exclusively black band shirts, I had a very strong aversion to keyboards in my metal. The ironic usage of the word "poseur" hadn't yet entered my vocabulary and I sincerely believed that bands that use keyboards just used them to hide their lack of talent or otherwise artificially sweeten an unimpressive album. I was, of course, an elitist and have since changed my mind about many a thing. Keyboards can be a very valid decision to give your band a specific sound and feel and fill it with sounds that have more reified qualities than just the distorted wall of sound we subject ourselves to joyfully every day.
Sarcoptes is such an act. At its core, the band plays a version of long-form Progressive Thrash Metal that heavily uses the aforementioned keyboards. The band uses rather straightforward riffs a lot of the time and very little of it is as out-there in a melodic or harmonic sense as we have gotten used to from similar acts like Vektor. The keyboards, in this sense, add a lot to make the music actually stand out in a way. On a level of sound, there is a certain late-80s cheesyness to the synths that I rarely see anymore and that even in the 80s was mostly relegated to intros or metal played by bands wearing animal furs. While I can't say that the band hides their lack of talent with the keys here, as I think that the keyboard work of Sean Zimmermann clearly shows that a decent amount of work went into it and that care was taken to integrate it into the sound. But even within this framework, the band does not quite manage to write songs that justify their length. It would have been very possible to cut these songs up into multiple smaller ones and, if the thematic flow is deemed necessary by the band, to have some callbacks to older songs. As it stands, I think the album would probably play better if trimmed and tightened up - a problem bands without keyboards also have frequently, of course.
Rating: 5/10
Metalligatorrr's Chomping Commentaries
Dragoncorpse - The Drakketh Saga EP
Genre: Deathcore / Power Metal / Spoken Word
Label: Independent
Release Date: 10-02-2023
If those tags do not scare you away, let me tell you why you actually should reconsider. I was drawn in by morbid curiosity because of the given tags of Power Metal and Deathcore when I first saw this. And for the opening song, "SUNLOVER", I was somewhat convinced that this EP by Dragoncorpse could be fun. This song starts out with some bright Power Metal that grows more intense with blastbeats, growls and a Deathcore chug that co-exists with the tone of the Power Metal in a moment of glorious stupidity. A breakdown - alternating cleans/harsh vocals and some Death Metal coupled with a folksy tune, all seems well. While the other proper songs stumble a bit in their delivery of the Power Metal parts, when they cross over to Heavy Metal riffs and the Death-side of the band's sound it sort of works. At times there is a feeling that the sound does not quite want to come together, but this is also the band's first attempt at putting together a collection of songs.
Now, the real problem lies in the fact that there are interludes on the EP. More specifically, four interludes that feature loud Deathcore vocals to a comparatively quiet backing track of slightly symphonic/slightly Celine Dion-like melody (Don't believe me? Look at the band pic and despair). These interludes are atrocious in their Power Metal-narration style and harm any kind of flow this EP could have had. The fun opener aside, I admit there are still some good ideas here. "Blood and Stones" is a solid Deathcore number where the Power Metal struggles to even exist, managing to wring some interesting drama out of the formula. "From the Sky" uses a driving Iron Maiden riff to catapult through a song, only broken up by a breakdown. "UNDYING" closes out with some Death Metal influenced Power Metal drama that shows the band being versatile. I walk away with the feeling that this band could be on to something if they can learn to focus more on their strengths. As intrigued as I am I just can't score this higher because of its flawed structure.
Rating: 4/10
Bosco Sacro - Gem
Genre: Ambient / Doom Rock / Trip-Hop
Label: Avantgarde Music
Release Date: 10-02-2023
Bosco Sacro are one of those bands that make music that can be intangible enough to defy description. Nevertheless, the band themselves state that the roots of their music lie in Ambient, Doom and Trip-Hop. The last one I have a hard time picking up on but a case can certainly be made for Doom being present in the mood here, if catering a bit more to the Rock side of the spectrum rather the Metal one. On the one hand, these mood pieces throb and swell akin to depressed Post Rock that has gotten lost on its way to the crescendos. On the other, vocalist Giulia Parin Zecchin's timbre carries a tone that strongly reminds me of Siouxsie Sioux, lending this debut album the ghost of a Post-Punk/Goth influence. For a demonstration of this, look up the song "Les Arbres Rampants" for a beautiful vocal line with some of the heavier (but not really heavy) instrumentation you will find on Gem.
At a short 32 minute runtime, Gem does not overstay its welcome. Just as soon as you start to tire of the sound, the album is over. I always struggle with music that is this undefined but to Bosco Sacro's favor, I think they have just enough of unique elements to each song to make them stand out from each other. The vocals also mitigate any concerns of getting lost in it by serving as an anchor for the ambiance. I pick up a slight The Gathering influence in songs like "Be Dust", from their more quiet work, and this places a clear path forward for Bosco Sacro - they know how to weave competent moods but I am not entirely convinced by the songwriting save for this track. Walking the balance between ambient mood and actual songs is decidedly hard, and this is what the band should focus their strength on moving forward. Still, Gem is pleasant when it is playing and even if I want to see some more work on the minute details and general curves of the songs, I am still enjoying my time with it.
Rating: 6/10
Cosmo's Chaotic Curveballs
Sarpa - Mauta Tala
Genre: Black Metal / Death Metal / Ambient
Label: Independent
Release Date: 17-02-23
Sarpa is a one man Black/Death Metal band from Texas, and the EP Mauta Tala is their third overall release after a demo and a debut full length, Solivagus, in 2020. I was lukewarm on the debut full length, and went into this EP with no real expectation of magnificence. What this EP gave me instead of magnificence was a roller-coaster ride of decent Blackened Death Metal to ultimately disappointing Black Metal. Mauta Tala is an ancient Sanskrit phrase meaning "death rites", and so immediately on pressing play I'm expecting a mystic atmosphere.
The first track, "Arcane Rites (Tohu wa Bohu)" delivers that with the soundscape of a nameless rider entering into a forbidden desert city before starting up the Blackened Death Metal that makes up the majority of this track. There are some interesting elements thrown into the mix, including what sounds like a didgeridoo at a few points throughout the nearly 12 minute affair. It's a decent opening track that seamlessly blends into track 2, "Necropoleis of the Nebulous Deserts", but here is where the release begins to lose steam. At just shy of 2 ½ minutes, this is more an interlude than anything else. The ambient sounds that make up this track could have been integrated into the first or cut entirely, and would make for a better album.
The final track is not much better. Although track 2 flows seamlessly into track 3, this is more a building dirge that never goes anywhere, staying at an almost lifeless pace for the entire 12 minute runtime. I appreciate ritualism and mystic atmospheres in my extreme metal, but Sarpa falls flat. There is potential here, and I will listen to what they release next. Hopefully Sarpa expands upon their ritualism to make a more compelling sophomore album.
Rating: 5/10
Eldritch Abbot of the Celestial Sea
Telomyras - Telomyras
Genre: Heavy Metal
Label: Independent
Release Date: 18-02-2023
Seattle Trad Metal group Telomyras is best described as a NWoBHM-sounding act, with female vocals and traces of early Iron Maiden. I have some reservations about this EP (also titled Telomyras), namely that the individual songs feels a tad same-y, where I would have preferred some more variation within the songs. I can easily tell the songs apart, but with the shortest track at 4:55 and quite a lot of tempo in all of them, it feels like it could have been cut shorter and still resulted in a better EP with more direction. For Trad Metal, there is often an issue for me of having the guitars fairly at the front of the mix, where the vocals are more in front here, which almost makes it sound more poppy at times.
Having said that, I find a fair amount to like about Telomyras. While I don't like the vocals in the mix, they are strong on their own. There's some passion showing as well. I am usually sceptical about approaching Trad Metal, because far too often it can be summed up as "five dudes who really like Judas Priest and/or Iron Maiden", but in Telomyras' case I can hear an Iron Maiden influence, but there's more happening here other than just homage to an older act. Lyrically, I am actually fairly impressed. Quoting Richard Oppenheim's famous quote of "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" and not have the rest of the lyrics pale compared to that is not easy, but Telomyras pulls it off fairly well. So while I think the songwriting could have used some more work, the lyrics work for me.
Overall, I feel like the band lacks direction and could have benefited a more driven mix for this EP, but there is also a lot of passion, a good drummer and some fun lyrics. So while I won't be returning to this EP that often, the band has a lot of interesting things going for them that I hope they will work into their next recording (becuase that I would really like to listen to!). Anything resembling originality in Trad Metal is always welcome.
Rating: Low 6/10
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