Solbrud – Jærtegn


I’ve recently had another one of those instances where I got an album of a band that comes from a country that I do not associate with the direction they play at all…and yet they’ve managed to convince me that genres are not necessarily tied to a certain place. The Danish black metal band Solbrud plays their music exactly how I like it, but more about that a bit later, and their second full-lenght Jærtegn is a really solid piece of art.

Funny thing is that I received the album in late July, when it was above thirty degrees Celsius, and I had a hard time getting into it because my mood influences the things I listen to a lot. “Luckily” however, the weather decided to be bad for about two weeks straight and the foundation for an ideal black metal listening session was laid. But enough weather forecast and rambling, let’s dive in!

When I mentioned earlier that the quartet plays a style of black metal that I love, I meant that the music is very monotonous, in a good way, and manages to build such a tight atmosphere that it’s so easy to get lost in the music. Each of the four songs is above ten minutes long, or just under, and the different riffs often repeat themselves for about a quarter of the song, with tiny variations, but somehow it never gets boring at all.

The majority of the forty-seven minutes is a non-stop assault of blast beats, double bass fire and fast-paced riffs, but every now and then the band switches to mid-tempo and that’s where shit gets real…goosebumps-inducing moments guaranteed. The best display of that is definitely the longest song, Klippemennesket, which builds up tension with a very simple progression of clean guitar notes before exploding into full pure goodness…only to return to the intro mid-song and then switch into the next power-laden part. Hands down my favorite on the album.

The vocals really remind me of Immortal‘s Abbath, but then again I must admit that I don’t know all that many BM bands…either way, the performance blends in perfectly with the instrumental background and completes the atmospheric ensemble in every desirable way. Lyrically, I have no precise idea what it’s about, because sadly my Danish is limited, but what I gathered from reading through the lyrics real quick is that it’s nature-based and about darkness…but please do take that with a big grain of salt.

All in all, Solbrud have recorded an album that has pushed just the right buttons for me and, for me personally, this is probably the black metal release of the year. While there might be connoisseurs screaming up right now mentioning dozens of other records, let me just say: listen to Jærtegn on September 15th when it’s released, it’s well worth your while. For more information, head over to the band’s Facebook page and be sure to listen to the live performance of the opening track of the record!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5-XAXLyUHs]

Betraying The Martyrs – Phantom


When I first heard the name Betraying The Martyrs back in late 2012, I didn’t really pay much attention to the band. In early 2013 I saw them live for the first time and their energetic live show convinced me to give their debut album Breathe In Life a chance. I haven’t regretted it to this day. I saw them again a bit later that same year and if anything, their stage presence had improved further. Naturally I was very excited when the guys announced that they were working on a new album, and when Phantom was finally released on July 15th, I was blown away by the result.

The sextet from France, which features a singer from the UK and a drummer from Russia, has a very distinct style that is easiest described by a made-up term: epic metalcore. Let me elaborate: the technical level of the musicians is very high and the arrangements of every song just have a purely symphonic feel to them, while still being relentlessly heavy.

The heaviness is assured by the very low, B tuning I think, guitar sound and crushing riffs, coupled with the almost robot-like precision of the drumming. To be honest, I could write a paragraph each about the skill displayed on every single instrument. But I’ll condense it a bit: the drummer is, in my opinion, one of the best in the genre despite his rather basic drum setup. The groove that this guy unleashes is just pure insanity, coupled with the above-mentioned tightness, speed and a mind-blowing amount of fills, it’s just a pure joy to listen to the forty-four minutes of madness.

The guitarists are in a similarly awesome sphere of grandeur, since their feel for melodies coupled with neck-breaking parts is eargasmic, yeah I just made that word up. Another very atmospheric layer is added by the keyboards, which are featured prominently but not to the point where it sounds like one of those electro-core bands. To top it all off, the production is exactly what I think a modern metal record should sound like: a clean but ear-drumming sound, which does in some places border on the over-produced but manages to walk the fine line between a genuine and a tweaked sound.

If BTM were an instrumental band, the thirteen songs would already be close to perfection at this point but they feature dual, triple during some choruses, vocals…so the epicness continues. The cleans have two major things going for them: their very skillful handling of melodic singing and something I just love, on a personal level: the very distinct Frenglish accent. The unclean parts cover pretty much every aspect of the spectrum, ranging from growls, to deeper growls, to even deeper growls, as well as screams and a few screeches for good measure. The small cherry on the pie are guest vocals by Gus Faris of Volumes on the track Phantom (Fly Away).

If by now I haven’t managed to convince you to give Phantom a shot, let me just finish off by saying that they covered a song from the Disney movie Frozen, which you can listen to below. While it sounds a bit ridiculous on paper, it sounds incredible when played and shows off the band’s sound perfectly while still maintaining the feel of the original song. This second record should be in every metalcore fan’s collection, since it will keep you entertained for hours on end, trust me. You can find more info about the band and their busy touring schedule on their Facebook page. Enjoy!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtkGluLhnGU]

Basement – Further Sky


Sometimes, even when you’re sad when a band you like disbands, it’s worth keeping an eye on them. While it’s not always the case, some of them decide to reunite and release new music. Such was the case with the hardcore/grunge band Basement a few weeks ago since, after two years of being gone, they unleashed Further Sky.

The five guys originally from the UK have recorded two new songs, Summer’s Colour and Jet, as well as a cover of the Suede song Animal Nitrate. All three songs sound exactly like what you’d expect from the band and still make me want more, even after having listened to them at least thirty times.

The dreaminess that defines the band’s sound is ever-so-present, while still keeping it straight-forward and engaging. Especially the main riff of Jet just showcases why I fell in love with the previous record, Colourmeinkindness, back when it was released.

While this isn’t really a typical review of the eleven minute-long EP, I just felt like I had to mention that BASEMENT ARE BACK! I know that I’m not alone when I say that after this sweet little cock-tease, I’m willing to throw my money at the guys if they decide to make another full-length. Be sure to click play below and visit the band’s Facebook page!

The Kut – Make Up


I wanted to start this review with stating something, but then I read the band’s bio and thought to myself: let’s not. So let me skip that sentence and move on straight to the introduction: The Kut from lovely London are a three piece band that plays, as they like to call it, basement rock but to the uninitiated I’ll just refer to it as grunge for now. Their new EP Make Up was released in mid-August, however due to our break here at El Gore, I’ll just give you my impressions now.

The first interesting point that struck me about the trio is that, partly due to their low number of musicians, the bass is nice and strong in the mix, providing a groovy line throughout the five songs. As a matter of fact, the guitar is for the most part underlining the bass guitar, which is something I have rarely heard, but I absolutely dig it! The drums didn’t strike me as anything particularly special, but they do provide a fitting backdrop to the stringed instruments during the five songs, so nothing to argue there.

The vocalist has a nice rough and powerful voice, as is fitting for the genre, and has no issues whatsoever with busting out sweet melodies throughout the almost twenty minutes with her vocal chords. My favorite one being on the track Mario, which reminds me of something but I can’t, for the life of me, put my finger on it.

This about does it for Make Up, since it’s pretty straight-forward music but still well worth your while, so give it a listen below and in case you are truly curious what my opening statement could have been, head on over the band’s Facebook page!

The Hiding Place – This Is Home


To be quite frank, when I think of post-hardcore, one of the last countries I think of is the UK. While they do have a handful of bands in the genre, the majority hails from across the bigger pond…but that impression has changed with my introduction to The Hiding Place! Their new release This Is Home has just dropped a few days ago and it’s fine display of how to sound genuine and diverse.

The quintet from the Midlands seems to take inspiration from several big names in the genre and creates its own blend. Even though I don’t like name-dropping very much when I review smaller bands, I can’t resist mentioning (old) Sleeping With Sirens and (old) Chiodos. Some passages in the five songs have distinguishable elements from both bands, yet still sound fresh and entrancing.

There are hardly any moments where any of the instruments takes a break and slower parts are almost non-existent…I can dig that, and so should you. The few calm instances are highly atmospheric though, so they don’t take away a single second from the drive of the sixteen minutes. The production is clean, heavy where it needs to be and feels rather genuine.

The vocals were what bothered me during the, approximately, first two minutes on the EP…but then the wobbly, for lack of a better word, singing turned into heartfelt screams and beautifully sung cleans. The overall performance blends in nicely with the ensemble and there’s really nothing negative I could state. So kudos! Just on a personal note, there was one lyric that really made me smile because I never looked at it that way myself: “I drink to remember, not to forget”…cheers for that!

To sum things up: while The Hiding Place probably won’t claim the award for best band of the year or some shit like that, they’re a solid band that deserves your attention and I’m quite confident in saying that if they continue this way, they will be putting out some more brilliant stuff in the future! To get an impression, check out the video below and visit the band’s Facebook page!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ba-7rz9ieE]

Aphyxion – Earth Entangled


I must say that there are few things that are more gratifying to me than when a prediction, I made in one of my early reviews, becomes true. The reason I’m mentioning this is because back in 2012 when I wrote about today’s band’s second EP, I said that you should keep a close eye on their future evolution since it should be a promising one…turns out I was right. The Danish guys from Aphyxion are about to release their first full-length album, Earth Entangled, and the progress they’ve made is astonishing!

In case you’ve never heard of the quintet: they play a modern type of melodic death metal that gives away their Scandinavian roots immediately. This unique talent for groove seems to be an omnipresent quality in band’s emerging from up north, and so is the case here as well. The first improvement to its predecessor can be noticed in the production quality: what sounded good before, sounds fucking massive now, both the drums and the guitars hammer you into the ground equally effectively.

The ten songs are generally speaking a lot more technical and the structures more intricate, but still retain a feeling of being from the same ensemble. In a way that is a strong selling point, because at no point is the listening experience disrupted by too much of a change of tone, but on the other hand it sometimes makes it harder to differentiate the individual songs, despite of every song being essentially different. It’s kind of hard to explain, but personally even after more than ten listen-throughs I wasn’t able to say which song I was listening to without peeking at the songlist.

The vocal performance remains nearly flawless and the evil growls fit perfectly into the instrumental backdrop. The vocal rhythmic as well as the lyrical content has, in my opinion, improved quite a bit and add a new layer to the band’s music. Only minor gripe I have, is that the vocal variety seems to have diminished and the screeches I have praised on the EP, have almost completely disappeared. I doesn’t really make the whole less interesting, but I thought they were a nice little addition in the past.

All in all, Aphyxion have managed to deliver a very strong forty-six minute debut album with Earth Entangled, that deserves a spot in every melodic death metal fan’s library. Be sure to head to the band’s Facebook page and give their music video below a click. And last but not least: be sure to catch them on their European tour in support of the record! One of the stops will be at Soul Kitchen in Luxembourg on the September 19th, so be sure to move your asses out there and bang those heads!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCxLhZKCFIU]

Summer Break, as is tradition

After another 7 months of providing you with content, it is time for us to take a little one month break.

There won’t be any Trash Monday nor any planned reviews. Possibly a spontaneous one but no guarantees.

We’ll be back on September 1st with a fresh batch of reviews, so be sure to enjoy your time until then and drink a beer for or with us!