Capture The Crown – Til Death

In the couple of years that I’ve been listening to metalcore and similar music I’ve seldom seen one band receive as much hate as Capture The Crown. The reason for all this malice is that people argued that they blatantly copied Asking Alexandria‘s style from their Stand Up And Scream era. This includes: the way they dress, their musical style, their lyrical content and so on. I have to admit that back when I heard their first single You Call That A Knife? This Is A Knife! I had the same impression and opinion…but since I usually don’t judge a band after a single song I decided to wait for their first full length. In late 2012 they announced that their debut Til Death would be released in December 2012 via Sumerian Records, which wasn’t really a surprise since they have also signed AA. But enough back story, let’s get down to business.

Already during the intro you’ll know what direction this record is taking: metalcore infused with electronic elements. The guitars come at you with great ferocity and even though the main riffs are pretty generic, there are a lot of tasty licks to keep it from being monotonous. And, as you may or may not know, even though I usually have a hard time to hear the bass lines, there is absolutely no problem here, they are clearly distinguishable.

The drums throughout the fourteen songs are nothing awe-inducing but they do exactly what they are supposed to do: keep the beat and rhythm. So no complaints there. The vocals vary between deep growls, high screeches and clean singing and are altogether very well executed. The lyrics are laden with curse words but if you’re not too much of a wimp when it comes to that it shouldn’t bother you.

There’s only one small gripe during this forty-eight minute album: the “dubstep” song Storm In A Tea Cup is just awful, especially with the auto-tuned vocals…but I’m not a big fan of stuff like that to begin with. But since it’s easily skipped it doesn’t bother me much when I listen to the entire record.

All in all, I’d say that CTC have managed to make a respectable first step into the scene and that they’re definitely worth checking out, especially if you liked the above mentioned Asking Alexandria album. I’m eager to follow their evolution and I hope that people will at one point look past the prejudices and just accept the band’s style, be it original or not. Check out their Facebook page and listen to the song below!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC9ru4LLNHU]

Fights And Fires – We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow

Fights and Fires remain true to themselves, not without refining their rock soup with some nice little ingredients. If spring won’t come in the next months then this will melt the snow just at the right time to start the festival season.

Starting with what remained the same, let’s talk about the very beginning of We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow, or should I say with the first few songs that again won’t give you any chance to breathe? Just like on the debut album Proof That Ghosts Exist, the four Britons tackle you out of nothing, and don’t you expect any pity: 11 powerful punches right into your face, all tracks rarely longer than 3 minutes, yum-yum! Admirers of the dirtier post-core sound of the debut will find a cleaner production, but fortunately not overproduced.

Pop punk as well as a few 90s metalish head banger parts are a bit more present, pushing the rough hardcore air of the debut a bit aside, but those are just bits and bobs. In the end, Fights and Fires have taken one more step forward, sounding more mature overall, which isn’t a bad thing as long as the lightheartedness won’t get lost. Thankfully, there’s no reason to worry about that, given that the boys still take you to corners of the dance floor you probably have never seen. The darker side of the typical Fights and Fires sound also found its place on We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow, arranged in a very powerful trilogy (If I’m The Forrest Then You’re Jenny, Rats and Vultures and Cat’s Lives) towards the middle of the album before it’s fast-tracking again after a nice transition to Mother’s Advice.

We Could All Be Dead Tomorrow surely is a very strong and worthy successor of the 2011 debut. Put on your dancing shoes!

Recommendations: Chase The Blues, Back Bone, If I’m The Forrest Then You’re Jenny, Bff… For Now

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d3yc4luUD8]

The LP will be out on February 22nd, you can pre-order it in the format of your choice or immediately download the digital album here.

TUB

Hey guys, did you ever wonder what happens when your girlfriend isn’t in the mood for sex and the only way to release pressure is to fap in your bath tub? Director Bobby Miller has the answer: “Paul jerked off in the shower. Paul just impregnated his bath tub.” Yes you heard right, today’s short movie (+/-12 minutes) is about a bath tub and a man (who is already in a relationship with a real woman) becoming parents of an „alien-like“ child.

After I watched the TUB I came along Miller’s influences and I wasn’t, at any moment, surprised that he listed directors like David Cronenberg, Lynch, Terry Gilliam and co. because TUB can best be described as an expirimental drama combined with grotesque black humor and adorable body horror elements.

As an (independent) filmaker you always walk a thin line when it comes to experimental movies and in the end, this is exactly what I like about them. TUB, which world premiered at Sundance 2010, does not follow the typical “how do I make a billion dollar hollywod shit movie without having an idea of what I am doing here” rules based on shallowed social stereotypes. Miller takes risks and there are surely people who don’t like it but in the end it is a nice, well-made short which certainly will not change your life but maybe will make your day.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H40oOp0pzY]
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SunnO))) live at Astra Kulturhaus Berlin

I was looking forward to attending a SunnO))) gig for the past three years now. Last Sunday I got the opportunity to see them again as they were the closing act for the Transmediale festival in Berlin and they did not disappoint me. In fact, SunnO))) is the single best live act who has ever walked the Earth (see what I did there?).

But first things first, as I was pretty late for the gig I missed the opening band but let’s be honest, I attended a drone doom concert and was not in the mood to hear/feel anything else.

The SunnO))) stage looked as always. The huge backline of amplifiers, just as the musicians, in their typical monk robes and the crowd itself, were completely embedded in exposured fog. When it comes to SunnO))) the performance is very important and always raises the tone of the ensemble.

Talking about the music, it was, as usual, very diffcult to distinguish different songs and I would rather describe SunnO)))’s act as a 3 segmented ritualistic performance. The first half hour consisted of instrumental, extremely loud drone feedbacks coupled with hypnotic oscillating pulsing riffs. At some point during these 30 minutes the band nearly managed to create something which could be defined as a toting percussive feel.

The transition to the second part was kind of surprising. Attila Csihar entered the stage and boosted the ritualistic performance to a new level. The atmospheric sound images eclipsed and supported Atilla’s vocal performance from the background while he was crying, mumbling, whispering and roaring like a dying man in pain. During his last prayers the whole band joined him to evoke an insane arrhythmic noise-apocalypse.

At first I wasn’t sure if the middle part would fit into the performance but after I witnessed the extreme discrepant and dissonant atmospheric last segment, I am pretty sure that it worked that well because of the middle part. The ending of the performance outshined everything heard before.

SunnO))) are able to create an atmosphere and soundscapes which slowly turn my body and mind in some kind of hypnotic state which leaves me unable to control myself. At the end I was completely dazed by this overwhelming, destructive beauty.

(Pictures were taken from here)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

Postrock is dead! Deal with it. The only thing that sucks more is to revive a defunct post hardcore band from the late 90’s and play at Loolapallooza or Rock Am Ring.

Honestly, I really don’t know where to start here. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are one of my all-time favourite postrock bands and they have been on an indefinite hiatus since 2002. With Yanqui U.X.O. (released in 2002) , they disappointed their fans and did not meet the expectations after they set the bar to an unattainable height with their legendary record Lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven, so going on hiatus or disbanding would have been the logical consequence, as GY!BE achieved everything there was to achieve and said everything there was to say, as a monumental political band.

Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is not that bad, though. The first song Mladic contains every known ingredient in GY!BE’s songwriting but lacks any big surprises. It starts with wiry samples of a radio conversation, gets over to what I call uninspired riff rocking hence the rhythm and aggressiveness and ends in an epical orchestral climax in best GY!BE manner. As far as I recall Mladic used to be Albanian and We drift like worried fire used to be Gamelan, 2 songs from their live repertoire back in the past.

There’s not much to add to Their Helicopters Sing and Strung Like Lights At Thee Printemps Erable. 2 tormenting interludes between 2 tracks that last for 20 minutes is nothing new here.

We drift like worried fire is my personal highlight. It’s got the melancholia I know from older songs like Sleep from Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven and a lot of variation. It’s chaos and control in every single aspect though the only thing missing is the big bang, the moment that gives you shivers down your spine. We drift like worried fire is a good GY!BE song, don’t get me wrong, Godspeed You! Black Emperor dominate the loud / quiet game unlike any other band but the song is too cranky to arouse deep emotions.

All in all, Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is an okay record, not the best but also not the worst. It saddens me to see one of my all time favourite bands coming back, trying to give a sign of life even though their momentum and zenith has been over 10 years ago and post rock has been over used for longer than Michael Jackson’s demise, especially when both main tracks are re-interpretations from former live tracks. Next!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP6-wlhviKw]

Teddy: It’s Gonna Be a Bear

I was born in the mid 80ies and so, logically the first slasher movie I saw was Scream 1. In addition I have to admit that I, as a big horror fan, have never seen a Nightmare On Elm Street movie (shame on me) and the interest in Halloween just came recently. In fact, I saw the original Halloween after Rob Zombie‘s first one (which I quite like) and only recently started watching all the campy cult slasher movies from the 80ies. As you for sure have realized now, I am pretty much a noob when it comes to genre movies but I am always very open to „new“ stuff and of course love independent movies and that’s why I decided to do a little something about Teddy: It’s Gonna Be a Bear. Do not expect a genre review and don’t nail me down to every statement I make.

The Teddy project was first brought to me by writer and Executive Producer Kevin Sommerfield who, together with Steve Goltz (director and co-writer), runs the Slasher Studios. Teddy is the studio’s first short movie and was finished in February 2011 with Sommerfield claiming that it is a new experiment in terror and a throwback to the slasher films of the 1980′s.

The story, or let’s rather say the beginning of the movie, reminds me loosely of I know what you did last summer from 1997. 4 teenagers kill a man (Kirk Gilbert) by hitting him with their car. They roll him in the god damn ditch and continue their camping trip. What they do not know is that the man’s mentally retarded son (Keegan Bergen) witnessed the whole razzmatazz and decides to avenge his father.

 As I already mentionned in an other movie review it is really difficult to shoot a short movie and it is often underestimated. You have to get the viewer’s attention right from the beginning and the climax build-up and its positioning are crucial and often fails due to the short time given. When I first saw Teddy I had exactly this feeling but after the second watch I realized that Steve and Kevin simply didn’t put that much weight or importance on the climax build-up. Teddy gets down to business pretty fast.

On the one side I would have loved to see more detailed killing scenes, but on the other side I know that detailed death scenes are really time and money consuming with both being the two deadliest ennemies of (independent) filmmakers. Furthermore I think that slasher flicks also have to play with the viewer’s imagination in order to work, so this is not a negative aspect but rather a personal affectation of mine. In the end the kills are well-chosen, innovative and even pretty funny. As I am a big fan of handmade effects, I also want to thank Sommerfield, Goltz and their team for making them on their own and not using fucked-up CGI effects.

The music is spine-chilling, well chosen and perfectly placed in every single scene throughout the movie. The actors were quite decent for an independent movie, with Steve Goltz and Kevein Sommerfield standing out from the rest. Their caracters (Clay and Aaron) are incredibly over-stylized and humorous. Goltz is the muscled, arrogant, drinking asshole, who only has beer, sex, and later on an axe in his head. Sommerfield is the exact opposite and plays the random loser who in the end got nothing but a stick up his ass. The girls were nice to watch and the killer did his job.

Teddy is a nice little horror flick with funny details and typical, stereotyped slasher elements. Do not expect anything new, which for sure wasn’t Kevin and Steve’s intention but if you are interested in oldschool or even modern genre movies you should give Teddy a try. It is a nice 11 mins movie by dedicated independent people who believe in 80ies horror and who want to prevent it from dying unlike 99% of the people in the movie.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUKRT8nUpZE]

Finally if you like what you see/saw you can support the studio’s upcoming slasher feature, Don’t Go to the Reunion. There are only a few days left on the kickstarter. So check it out here

Legends Of The Night – Predation

Today I’m going to review something I haven’t done for El Gore so far: a comic; more precisely Predation from the Legends Of The Night series. In case you have never heard of it, which is likely, let me introduce you to this horror comic by Karl White: it’s a completely independent series which has three issues so far and one compendium that explains the history of the world the stories are set in. They are all drawn by different artists and the one I chose to review features art by Jm Ringuet. I have to warn you: the review will be quite spoilery…so continue at your own discretion.

The plot is quite simple: a serial killer, Charles Mercer, is looking for a new victim and through an unlucky coincidence he ends up finding it in the form of a shy librarian. He stalks her, knocks her out and drags her to his basement where he ties her up on an autopsy table. Here he proceeds to slice her open with a scalpel in order to gut her like a pig. However, his plans are dramatically changed when the woman starts to twist and scream, only to transform into a werewolf.

As the hunter becomes the prey he runs for his life and looks for refuge in the woods, to no avail. He flees further and ends up in the neighbor’s barn where he is discovered by the owner, Mr. Horn, who threatens him with a shotgun. A panel later he gets his head chewed off which must make him the most short-lived character in a comic book, but at least it’s a gory departure.

Charles continues his flight and bumps into a girl, who I believe is the farmer’s daughter, driving a car. Honoring every women-on-the-wheel cliché she crashes into a horse only moments later and is catapulted through the window, a friendly reminder to put on a seatbelt. This brings the headcount to two, three including our four-legged friend, in a matter of three pages. Our main protagonist then runs back towards his home and enters his basement again where he grabs an axe to face the she-wolf. The ending is as you might expect it to be: pure karma.

The artwork is fitting to the genre, with focus on the gore and blood. But I have to admit that I wasn’t blown away by it. Then again: comics like The Walking Dead aren’t all that much of an eye-candy either. As long as the drawings convey the story  in an understandable way it’s enough to satisfy me.

All in all, I’d advise people that are into horror comics to give this comic a try. Especially since it’s distributed in a digital form and is therefore easy to access. I included a link for the German Amazon…the US Amazon links can be found on their website here. Enjoy!

A Mute Appeal – Convictions Of Empires

It’s time to check out what’s been happening in the Luxembourgish scene again and what better way to do this than by checking one of the releases that I didn’t get around to review last year. I’m of course talking about A Mute Appeal, who released their debut EP Convictions Of Empires on December 1st. The band is comprised of five relatively young guys that play deathcore since 2011.

During my first listening session I was struck by one thing that has already bothered me on one of my previous reviews: two of the eight songs are intros. It’s nothing too annoying but in my opinion it could just have been one song. Then there’s also another brief interlude towards the end, which puts the actual song count down to five. The songs do make up for it but, personally, I’m not really a fan of intermissions on an EP.

The guitars are just right for the genre and have some interesting riffs that made me skip back a couple of times to enjoy them once again. The sound could be slightly sharper but no minus points there from me…it doesn’t always have to be perfectly produced to sound good. I can’t say anything bad about the drums at all: I like their sound and the frequent usage of double bass…my needs are satisfied.

Something that I am a bit disappointed by are the vocals…let me explain: I saw the band for the first time at FFYS last year and I was amazed by the singer because he killed it, especially considering that they were one of the first bands of the day. When I listened to the record though, his growls seemed weaker than at the show and his screeches, which did retain the quality I remembered, were rather poorly mixed. It’s a bit of a shame to me since the vocals were the one thing that I especially liked about their sound.

All in all, I’d say that Convictions Of Empires is a decent first release and that it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre. Nevertheless, I’m more interested in what the future holds for these guys since one thing they do not lack is talent and I’m convinced that with a little bit of polish they can easily surpass their first effort. Check out the band on Facebook and don’t hesitate to listen to the entire album on their Bandcamp page below.