The Fifth Alliance – Death Poems

by Dæv Tremblay

Netherlands’ The Fifth Alliance is a doom/sludge band active since 2013, from what I can tell, because it’s the year of the release of their debut album, “Unrevealed Secrets of Ruin”. But today I’ll be reviewing their upcoming album, Death Poems, which will come out October 31st through Grains of Sand Records. The album also has touches of post and black metal to it.

It’s rather uncommon to hear a band in that genre that is led by a female singer. Here, Silvia delivers monotonous yet emotional screams that wouldn’t be out of place on a post-hardcore album. And … Read more

OSR: 22nd October 2015

by Dæv Tremblay

Welcome to One-Sentence Reviews, where I’m too lazy to actually write decent length reviews!

Let’s kick today with Drummond‘s EP Getting Comfortable. Globally, it’s a more jazzy Sithu Aye. Now that’s something I can can get behind! Secondly, we’ve got India’s Kouros, with their first atmospheric doom rock album Causa. It does a pretty good job at establishing an atmosphere, but other than that nothing extraordinary. Hybrid Nightmares just released the fourth part of their Age cycle with The Fourth Age, the culmination of destruction. It’s a really good progressive black metal EP, and… Read more

Watchtower released 3 new singles!

by Dæv Tremblay

WatchTower-ArgumentsAgainstDesignFive years after they offered their first glimpse of Mathematics with “The Size of Matter”, Watchtower, one of the first technical metal bands, have published three new songs on CD Baby, available for 99 cents each.

Arguments Against Design, Technology Inaction and M-Theory Overture follow in the footsteps of The Size of Matter but, more importantly, stay close to their tech-thrash roots, like on their 1989 album “Control and Resistance”. There are crazy odd time signatures, cool and intricate riffs, the weird and unique soloing of Mr. Jarzombek, impressive bass and drums chops, and high-pitched vocals.

So, Mathematics… Read more

Kvøid – Nihility

by Dæv Tremblay

Experimental black metal has lately been a thing I opened about, and I’m glad I did. The amount of incredibly good music that this genre hosts is mind-boggling, and I won’t ever forgive myself to not have opened up to the marvellous world of black metal before that. That being said, the latest band I became acquainted with is Kvøid, a duo from Portland whose first album, Nihility, came out September 23rd of this year.

First off, the amount of field recordings and minor seconds on this album is rather impressive. It reminds me somewhat of Ulcerate and … Read more

OSR: October 18th 2015

by Dæv Tremblay

Here’s the second instalment of One-Sentence Reviews!

Let’s begin with The Pneumatic Transit, a progressive jazz band that released Concerto for Double Moon earlier this month: a great and substantial album for lovers of classical- and jazz-inspired progressive rock music. Then comes Mesarthim‘s space-themed Isolate album, an atmospheric black metal wonder that really knows how to take you by the hand and walk you through their songs. Breed the Killers is a sludgey death metal band that released their self-titled debut album earlier this month: it’s pretty good but rather one-facetted and can get boring at times.… Read more