The Bay Stater horror aficionados are well known as versatile and dynamic performers with a consistent longing to up the ante with each and every release, which just makes their claim as the reigning Kings of the Halloween soundtracks stronger and stronger. However, their familiar structure and tendency to send listeners off the deep end into a complete sensory overload is somehow completely missing that certain je ne sais quoi that previous explorations were previously highly praised for within is this release.
Although the experience of Horrorwood doesn’t totally live up to the nightmarish paradise promised, instances of sinister fables that can truly transport your consciousness through the TV screen include ‘The Shower Scene’ inspired by the 1960’s Alfred Hitchcock classic – Psycho and ‘F.L.Y.’ featuring Senses Fail frontman Buddy Nielsen, which derives inspiration from the 1986 Sci-Fi Body Horror flick The Fly, directed by the Baron of Blood himself, David Cronenberg.
‘The Shower Scene’ is an emo-pop/metalcore hybrid banger that captures the essence of shocking suddenness; with its various displays of mania offering a taste of the tormented mind lingering within Norman ‘Mother’ Bates, the track serves as a sort of introductory blaster to the complicated and tormented back story to the Psychological Thriller classic.
Since their inception in the black mire of the UK underground in 2016, Bound In Fear have gone from strength to formidable strength. With a menacing, bludgeoning and ruthless sound the band capture the bleak and brutal in scintillating fashion, making never of steel fray at the edges. While their debut album The Hand Of Violence launched the band into the upper echelons, it was the Eternal EP where the band honed their sound. Incorporating soundscapes and deeply reflective lyrics, the latter half of 2021 sees the band release the natural successor to Eternal, with their new release Penance.
Opening up with ‘(De)scedence’ featuring Heart Of A Coward’s Jamie Graham it is clear from the outset that the band have a strong message to deliver, and it is done so in brutal fashion. While the band by their very nature are reflective and cathartic in dealing with inner strife and struggle, but Penance as a whole has a unique weight to it. While Eternal focused on the inward emotions that people don’t often discuss, Penance is the lashing out. The visceral, high concentration of inner pain being released because of the bitter sadness and confusion that has been held in for too long. With this in mind, the concepts of Penance are presented perfectly as the opposite side of the Eternal coin. Utilising a range of extreme metal sub-genres, the overall sound is richly diverse tapestry of soundscapes and crushing riffs. Whilst the epicentre of this monstrous earthquake of sound sits firmly in deathcore, several tracks incorporate metallic hardcore chugs alongside progressive metal atmospherics, to create a sinister environment which only accentuates the sonic bludgeoning that you receive. The various dynamic shifts give the album a distinctly organised chaotic flow to it, coupled with the concept of the album it mirrors perfectly the nature of pain, sadness and confusion that you feel when going through inner turbulence.
Knocked Loose have made their name with an abrasive, brutal and explosive brand of hardcore. Hardcore in its purest, most aggressive form. From every dissonant chord to jarring glitches and breakdowns, the band from Kentucky have smashed their way into the upper echelons of the global hardcore scene.
Now, from the smouldering wreckage of a car crash comes the band’s latest project. A Tear In The Fabric Of Life, a total surprise drop out now, is a conceptual EP tormented by sorrow, grief and pain coupled with visceral anger and guilt. Incorporating a prominent death metal influence the band have reached a new level of heaviness, which is appropriate for the weight of the subject matter. A Tear In The Fabric Of Life builds on the narratives first hinted at on A Different Shade Of Blue. Using haunting and eerie soundscapes, the band tell the story of a car crash survivor who has killed his passenger. From there it is a chaotic spiral down the survivor’s guilt rabbit hole before they are reunited in death. Using radio interludes and guitar drones there is a continuous tension, as each song speaks to each other to tell this harrowing narrative. The more observant will notice that the radio interludes also hark back as far as 2016’s Laugh Tracks. The EP is the soundtrack to an equally harrowing short film that the band made with Magnus Jonsson, its bleak imagery augments the listening experience as you are taken down this dark, distressing road.
Refusing to confine themselves to one genre (as clichéd as that may sound), the band dub themselves as “pinball meets post-truth” (make of that as you will), though they have managed to rack up an impressive number of accolades and followers since their debut in 2014.
‘Start the Fire’ kicks off the album with an ominously sinister synth track played over a tribal Indian-inspired tabla beat, before a crescendo into a chorus that is part-metalcore and part-electronic dance music, with choral sounds in the background adding to the ambience. It’s a fusion that has been done before; yet there’s something about the use of unusual time signatures and a calm, collected, vocal delivery that manages to make it sound fresh. This continues throughout the intro to sophomore track ‘Long Way Home’, with heavy sections giving ways to lighter polyrhythmic melodies with an almost circus-like joviality and an apparent ease seen all too rarely in rock bands. It seems abundantly clear just a few tracks into Vengeance that when Twelve Foot Ninja call themselves a “genre-bending” band, they mean it.
With both lead singles coming in hard, it’s clear that the bands debut EP is going to be a no holds barred experience. This Won’t Ever Last acts as a bridge from early wave emo bands such as The Promise Ring to the modern day fans of melancholy sadness – and both ‘Skeleton’ and ‘Spent’ come out swinging. For a band in their infancy, it’s refreshing to see that they’ve instantly found their footing and directed their focus into emphasising their individual talents.
When touching on the collective’s first of the two single’s ‘Skeleton’, vocalist Adam Holborn describes the tracks narrative as one that ‘touches on the pressures felt, while growing up, to drink more than you want to or party harder than you can maybe cope with. This isn’t a song condemning partying or enjoying your youth, but more a reassurance that you can live life at your own pace.’
So reads a statement posted online by Norwegian metal titans, Enslaved, a band who’s vast and varied career has cemented their legendary status. Though the band’s newest output Caravans To The Outer World isn’t an album but a four track EP. Coming out a full decade since their previous non-album release (2011’s The Sleeping Gods), it follows on from 2020’s full-length Utgard in more ways than one.
“After Utgard, the path ahead cleared itself and we followed, past, present and future melted together in an EP that marks one giant leap for us” states guitarist and founding member, Ivar Bjørnson. Caravans… is a transitional piece, seamlessly picking up where Utgard (the band’s fifteenth(!) studio album) left off whilst also giving us an indication at what’s yet to come.
Described as “a tale of departure, leaving behind a barren and desolate world after willingly venturing into the unknown” it sounds as though Enslaved are gearing up to venture into the unknown, continuing to think outside the box with their current fusion of prog rock infused black metal.
