Black Friday XVIII – Underground Reco
Every time I do the #BlackFriday article is harder and harder because, at Blessed Altar Zine HR, we are getting promos and more promos from everywhere. That is good for several reasons. Bands are trusting in US, in our work and we are knowing bands that have very good quality, so for me choosing only for 4 bands for this article is hard. Maybe in the future, I need to put more bands here… But, for this #BlackFriday I chose these 4 bands.
Band: Archaic Decapitator
Title: The Apothecary
Label: Independent
Release date: 19 April 2019
Country: USA
Format reviewed: Digital Promo
This American Melodic Death Metal has been active since 2009 when they released the first demo named “The Archaic Ways of Decapitation”. After one album and two EP, they release this EP named “The Apothecary”. As I said they play Melodic Death Metal and the good one. They can’t deny the influences and what I heard here is very good. Not a copy paste band, first of all and in this music style, at least in my opinion, the bands can’t bring anything new. But they can bring quality, and it was what ARCHAIC DECAPITATOR did. This Ep with only five songs start with the song “Circadian Promise” or better saying an intro, after that the song “Skyward” and what a start, very good. With a lot of melodies and with a very fast beginning, after that more and more melodies are getting out from my speakers with a very good vocals tone. “Cruelty of the Host Star” is the third song and is the continuation of I heard the previous song, not in the bad sense. “Diminishing Returns” and “The Apothecary” are the last two songs from this EP and only after 23 minutes, the EP is over. Yes, sad but true. This EP is a very good one, but I want more. The quality of it is very good. The songs are strong and cohesive, that way they make this EP a very good acquisition. So in that order, I truly advise you to acquire this EP.
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Band: Dwell In Solitude
Title: The End (Of Sorrow)
Label: Independent
Release date: 24 April 2019
Country: Italy
Format reviewed: Digital Promo
When I saw the name of the band I related it to the Depressive and maybe Atmospheric Black Metal. Not wrong. The question after this conclusion was if it was good. The answer was YES. “The End (Of Sorrow)” is the second release from this one-man band and the first one was released in January of this year. This one-man band made released a very good EP in my opinion. The songs are felt and very well structured. The rhythms on it, the dark melodies and together with the leads on the songs… Tchhh… Very good indeed. If you manage to “enter” on the songs, and feel it, you will have a very pleasant feeling inside you, doesn’t sound very well this way because of the band music style, but is the truth what I’m saying. I really enjoy listening to this EP. The acoustic guitar on it, the violin on it (not in the same music), they manage to bring more “feeling” to this EP. If I’m going to listen to more times this EP? Yes, I will and you should too. One thing that I found and I really like it, the lyrics. They were not available on the promo that I got, but I did find them on the bands Bandcamp.
Band: Monolith
Title: Vermin Among Us
Label: Independent
Release date: 26 April 2019
Country: Germany
Format reviewed: Digital Promo
MONOLITH… Many bands with this name, including in the same country from this one-man band. Eheh. And what do we have here? Death Metal in a melodic way. Well, not all the EP. The first song named “Spit” starts very strong and fast, showing that the band could be more “brutal” and faster. But that is not the case. So when the second song “End Of Times” came you will listen to more, and much more melodic Death Metal, and to be honest this song reminds me a lot Amon Amarth. Yes, it does. The third song from this EP “World Behind” (Fet Andreas Joklitschke) could be very well a Power Metal song. Yes. When the first notes and especially when the voice starts to come out from my speakers, I thought “Is this the same band?”, yes, it is. The “game” between the two completely different voices is good and it shows that Mario the person behind MONOLITH does not have afraid to include on his solo project different things, but at the same time it looks a completely different band but is not bad. But I couldn’t find any info about Andreas Joklitschke. Hmm… “Vermin Among Us” is the last track from this EP and the same who gives the name to this EP. It’s the best song in my opinion in this EP or at least the one that “caught” much more my attention. In resume… This EP was a good listening but sadly only have 14 minutes.
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Band: Ungoliantha
Title: The Howl in the Waste
Label: Independent
Release date: 13 May 2019
Country: Ukraine
Format reviewed: Digital Promo
Do you know that feeling when you read one band name and you start to think were you already read it? Well with this Ukranian band I had that feeling. And after a few moments, I did remember… Readers and fans of J.R.R. Tolkien will remember this name, Yes it’s from there that I remember this band name. So, there are only two possibilities for the band music style. Or it is Black Metal or Death Metal. Why I’m saying this? Well quite easy. I never saw any band with names taken the Tolkien books playing Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Sludge or Grindcore. So, let me continue… So I looked for the cover… I started to turn for the Black Metal style. I click on the start button and… Yes. It is Black Metal. And? Well… Not my kind of Black Metal because it has keys, and I’m not a big fan of it, but… The keys here are not in “exaggeration” so they are not related with the Symphonic or Orchestral way. They are only here in order to adorn and fulfill the good Black Metal that this band is doing. This EP is divided into 3 original songs. One cover from Lord Belial and it ends with an “Outro” in a total of almost 22 minutes. The sound production of this EP is good, so you can understand everything and all the instruments are +/- balanced and that is very good in my opinion since the majority of the bands who have keys, they put the keys very high. They didn’t bring anything new into this style but they are going in a good way and they are not boring like the majority of the bands in this style. A good surprise I admit. Listen to them.
Thank you for reading my Reco… Till next #BlackFriday
Stay metal.
The Key Keeper
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