Stay Pure D.I.Y

Varg - 'The End of All Lies' - Full-lenght - 2016

This Wolf pack from Coburg, Bavaria (Germany) tends to be labeled as ‘wolf metal’ in the underground metal scene. Varg is consisted of Fenrier on drums (2005-present), Freki on guitars and singing along the way (2005-present), Hati on second guitar (2008-present) and finally Managarm previously on bass, but currently the lead guitarist and backing vocal. Syntech is an industrial metal band from Germany where both Managarm and Hati perform, playing under different monikers. Freki is the organizer of the pagan metal festival held in Germany called Wolfzeit (also a title from the first Varg album in 2007). As I can see the guys are pretty much deeply involved in different aspects of the underground pagan scene and maintain their lifestyles according to the requirements. They are dominantly dressed in old-school metal clothing, leather and denim, preserving the black color as a sign of darkness and aggression. Chains and bullet-belts are an important asset of their image as well. Another significant marker is the paint they are usually colored in, while they play live or appear on some of their video shoots. The colors are mixture of reddish tones (resembling blood) and black tribal symbols. Varg started shaking the metal ground in 2005, and the band has been pretty active in the period of 20 years of existence. They are responsible for couple of great melodic black/death metal albums such as Blutaar (2010), Wolfskult (2011) and Guten Tag (2012). Besides these releases, Varg appear on various compilations and have some demos and splits released also. In their lyrics they tend to refer to different topics of paganism, mythology and Vikings. They stand strong on anti-fascist and anti-racist positions and obtain from any politically based texts.

The end of all lies is the album that needs to be heard at least two times. It dwells in diversity and dynamics and the time passes by really fast once you play it. Though, I have never been a really big fan of pagan metal, this set I like. Maybe that is because of the fact that The end of all lies was created with the purpose of satisfying fans of various metal genres. The album has ten tracks; nine actually, as the first one is a part from The great dictator and his thoughts on worldwide peace – in means no music here. The second or first, actual song is a really great starter. It’s an aggressive, strong, energetic and dominative composition. For most of it, I can say it is a melodic death metal song, with a lot metalcore segments. It lasts for three minutes before turning in its harsher twin brother Revolution. This song interprets most of the parts from the previous song, while being more memorable and hymn-like. With Revolution the melodic death metal part of the album finishes. A follow-up is Streyfzug, announcing the era of the real pagan metal. Recognizable by the chorus backgrounds of proud singing, melodic full riffs - the paganism reeks from this one. Compacted with some acoustics and synths it really does a turnover. Achtung is the next hymn, starting with some quite catchy rock intro that tends to appear every now and then, and keeps the main basics of the song. I think this is a song about the band themselves because of the lyrics, saying something about a wolf pack coming. Next song is Darkness, the one I mostly disliked because of the lack of character. It just didn’t offer anything interesting. The paganism continues, now with a female vocal appearing on The Dance of Death. It’s a really slow and vivid composition with a remarkable leading riff, performed both in acoustic and distorted versions. Einherjer is the last one of the dominating pagan songs, a little bit faster than the previous one, and as glorious as it can get. So which genre was left missing? Of course, black metal. So black metal fans do not despair, as Varg made sure a song of such was going to be put on the album. That one is Winterstorm. The fastest and darkest song here, probably one of the best they made. The end of all lies finished with Rain of Ash, again not so remarkable song, but still fulfilling. It’s funny that I found the album with all-german lyrics out there, so I think that it will come out in two different language versions. Personally I think the German one will suit these lyrics more, even though I don’t understand that language too well. The production is quite modern and quite good, keeping all of the songs really tight. I will sure dig deeper into Vargs’ music!

Månegarm - 'Månegarm' - Full-lenght - 2015

Three years after their last piece of work ‘Legions of the north’ came to the light, this fall we have the eight in a row album from the Swedish Viking worshipers Månegarm. For those unfamiliar with the origins of the word, it is time to reveal what it stands for, as both the album and creators wear the same moniker. The term Månegarm comes from the Norse mythology, describing a wolf who feeds on the blood from dead people, and he swallows the moon down at Ragnarök. The band was formed back in 1995 under a different name – Antikrist, but probably realizing how common it may be, they changed it a month later. I think the name serves as a good detail in the overall image of the band. Only one of the original members is still inside this crew, the guitarist Jonas Almguist. Erik Grawsiö, who performs the bass line, as well as the vocals on this album, started as the drummer in 1996, shifting in 2000 as the singer and later on as the bassist. Markus Andė is the second guitarist. He joined Månegarm in 1996 and still stays strongly positioned inside. Their latest addition is Jacob Hallegren, taking control of the drums in 2011. For the years past, Månegarm managed to stand out on the metal scene, putting out some descent Viking/folk metal albums, widely accepted and worshiped. This one is here to continue the well established tradition…

From overhearing the whole album at once, I was quite satisfied with the production aspect, which is pretty clean and descent. I sensed some kind of standard variations of the song types. Yes there are two types of songs here. The first one is acoustic ballads with clean vocals and a lot of traditional instruments, mostly string instruments. The second type belongs to the distorted mixtures of heavy and power metal, filled with vocals most similar to death and black metal subgenres. The types of songs mostly change in precise intervals and really keep a good diversity and dynamics of the whole set. ‘Blödorn’ is the opening and longest composition of them all. It starts with fine combination of acoustic guitars and background organs, molding the supporting traditional string sounds in a nicely transcended native feel. It looks like every segment has been finely filled here. After a minute or two, the play transforms into sludgy guitars intro, moving slowly and exposing the vocal for the first time. The drums hit the double kick and build up a memorable moment with the riff along, finishing again in some traditional Viking melodies. Mostly the vocal is black oriented, but a sufficient amount of clean vocals are present as well. Second comes ‘Tagen av daga’ with provoking rock’ n roll bass intro and a jolly traditional melody, that really brings up the positive vibe. That mixture continues on, accompanied by background choirs and a vocal transcending from old-school rock to death metal. The highlight here was the middle part of the song where there was a nice play of many types of traditional instruments. Moving forward we have the song that will raise a feeling of battle glory in you, never mind if you have been in a battle or not ever. The tempo on ‘Odin owns ye all’ is a bit faster than the rest of the tracks, and has some heavy chorus with neat breakdown (and people singing Odin! Odin! In the background). Remember before when we were talking about the twists? Now it happens, after all of that adrenaline from the previous hymn, now everything settles down with the fourth and relaxed acoustic ballad ‘Blot’. The next one entitled ‘Vigverk – del II’ isn’t much different also, except the fact that the acoustic background is completed by a tender female voice and a more harsh male voice, making a good symbioses as they go. After these parts of lower blood pressure, not it is time for metal again. This one is probably my favorite on the album - ‘Call of the runes’, mostly because of the simple punk-like chorus and after-sections. Most of the song competes with the traditional vibe and the speed metal side, beating them at the punk finish of it. Another good aspect is the vocal, which changes from clean, to black, to death in a tasty way. Again, everything chills with the easy going compositions ‘Kraft’ and ‘Bärsärkarna från svitjod’, of which the second one is a really good fit for late night pub gatherings. What’s next? Of course, a speed/folk metal for one last farewell, before the album finishes in an acoustic ballad style with ‘Allfader’ and the female voice in it. The album is pretty good, but don’t expect too much energy from it. Yet, you can find it usable when your soul requires some peaceful traditional specs.

Endless Recovery - 'Revel in Demise' - Full-lenght - 2015

It is a rarity nowadays to find a really worthy old-school thrash metal band, from the thousands generic ones that appear weekly. Of course, the style maybe has been too exploited and not much is left for young bands to experiment on, but leaving a significant mark in the compositions is what makes you a band. I am glad I found Endless Recovery to have the opportunity to write a few lines about the mark they are leaving. The band was formed in 2011 in the capital of Greece – Athens. Since then the band has released two EPs: ‘Liar Priest’ in 2012 and ‘Resistant Bangers’ in 2014. Between these releases, the album that made them fall deeper in the underground mayhem got out, the greatly accepted by thrashers everywhere ‘Thrash Rider’. Since their forming, the band went through some line-up changes and today the only member from the original four is the drummer Mike M. The guitarist Tasos P., and his colleague Panos A., responsible for the bass and the backing vocals, joined in 2012. The vocal is the latest addition, completing the current line-up in 2013. Prior to this album, Endless Recovery have been releasing and album/EP every year, so they are a pretty active band. Another thing I want to mention is that Witches Brew is a trusted label, from point of view, and I have never been disappointed by the choices they make, regarding the bands they support. So let’s get into what happens on ‘Revel in Demise’.

The album has a playing time of almost 42 minutes, which is pretty much descent for a thrash band. I really consider thrash to be a form of short songs expressions, because there is always the risk of the album transforming into too boring. ‘Sinister tales’ sets off with some fast guitar leads and melodies that last for about a minute, before melting into the straight forward, teutonic thrash inspired ‘Revel in demise’. There is literally no savior from the fast drums and disharmonized riffs. Pretty much the band chose the 80’s central European thrash movement as an inspiration. Choose anyone from Sodom to Destruction to compare them with, but it is unwise to do that, as they bring here something more concrete, in means of song construction and the aggregation of the riffs. ‘Reaping fire’ comes next, continuing the same insane pace from its predecessor. I liked the part of isolated drums and bass in this one a lot. The fourth song is ‘Storming death’ and I consider it to be my top track on this album. It has some specific intro, quite hardcore, and a lot of interesting solo lines. The rest is the same old straight forward thrash, especially visible in the punk choired chorus. In ‘Leather militia’, coming next, the best solos have been played on this album, a direct A+ for Tasos. This is the song where the black metal influenced side of the vocal comes to the highlight point. Moving on, the guitarist still provides us with good solos and difficult riffs in ‘Trapped in a vicious circle’ and ‘Blood countess’. Trapped… is better composition where some rhythm changes occur and it really gives good dynamics to the album as a whole. ‘Hypnos’ is also a song with good dynamics and turnovers of the rhythm. The album finished its spinning cycle with the equally fast, aggressive and dirty thrash anthems ‘Evoke perdition’ and ‘Lurking evil’. From the production aspect these guys tried to stick to the quality from the German 80’s metal scene. It is not minimalistic, but it also isn’t as clean as we are used of hearing nowadays bands. Maybe a little effort should have been put on creating some ‘wiser’ lyrics, which stand out of the ordinary metal and evil inspired topics. Keep an eye on these Greek thrashers for the years to come, and watch out in they come to play live in your town, because a few broken bones at their gigs is probably a common situation.

Earthside - 'A Dream in Static' - Full-lenght - 2015

This is a group of highly educated and talented musicians and composers that go under the name of ‘Earthside’. The band was formed not long ago in New Haven, Connecticut. So far only one piece of extraordinary musicianship was recorded, the one I am about to review. The members of ‘Earthside’ are: Frank Sacramone, Jamie van Dyck, Ryan Griffin and Ben Shanbrom. Each and every one of them has a successful music career prior to joining Earthside. Frank does the job of playing keyboard, synthesizers, percussion and additional guitars in the band, and has a trace of many composed songs and produced videos with great success in the past. Jamie plays the main guitar as well as some additional keyboards and sings backing vocal. He also does some songs and video production work outside Earthside and continuously writes analysis on music theory. Ryan is the bass player and supporting vocal, but is equally good at playing saxophone, flute and clarinet. He was serving as a music director in a theater. At last the rhythm is based on Bens’ drum skills to tight everything together. Ben is a consistent columnist regarding the music industries in his spare time. All of them have put together their efforts to bring the first album out in 2015. The genre of the music could be labeled as progressive rock, while it has some elements that go beyond those boundaries. The band themselves describe their songs as ‘cinematic rock’, and while that description doesn’t explain much from the music aspect, it tells a lot of what you are going to experience while listening.

Generally speaking, most of these eight songs featured here last more than seven minutes each, except for three of them. Approximately, this one hour of play-time will go by fast as a lightening and probably you will consider playing the whole set once again. The first song, ‘The closest I’ve come’, is a real ice-breaker and pretty much gives you an idea what Earthside stands for. It is an instrumental, with slow to middle velocity tempo, which has a lot of rhythm variations, tuned in sections that change the atmosphere from fairy-tale melodic theme to blasting car action movie scene. I don’t mention these movie descriptions by chance, as it seems that the songs are meant to provoke you in creating a moving picture images inside your head. The full-length continues with the self-titled ‘A dream in static’, where the vocals appear for the first time. I think that the vocals weren’t meant to have a leading role in these compositions, as the main act is taken by the guitars and synths. This song precisely has a bit more tender and cheerful variations than the rest. All of that is accompanied by the high-pitched singers’ voice turning into rawer parts just at the end. From all of the tracks, my personal favorite comes third – ‘Mob mentality’. It has some good and hard drum sections and the vocal resembles some darker feelings. Kind of reminds me of some popular soundtracks from apocalyptic movies, just before the earth goes into oblivion. Nice synth intros are featured here. The shortest piece, ‘Entering the light’, of 5:27 minutes comes next and it seems that it represents only a long intro for the following song. ‘Skyline’ is the fifth and heaviest song of all, with good combination of easier mix of synts and keyboards, followed by deep heavy metal parts and vise-versa of the recipe. Pretty much they change the sequences two or three times until the song ends. It is also an instrumental. ‘Crater’ and ‘The Ungrounding’ follow, almost completing the second part of the album. Both of these songs are shorter (relatively) and seem slower in pace. Crater is fulfilled by vocals, again being put somehow in the shadows, beside the music. The Ungrounding feels futuristic considering the melodies, and some power metal influence can be sensed as well. At last the twelve minute finisher ‘Contemplation of the beautiful’ ties the whole thing up. The composition is quite long but also one of the most remarkable. For sure it has the best vocals on this album where you can feel the energy of the band at their full capacity, well maybe for the first time here. Everything vanishes in an oriental fade-out and a wish to hear and see a lot more from this tremendous quartet.

The album was produced in Sweden by David Castillo (Opeth, Katatonia) and Jens Bogren (Opeth, Symphony X) and has a tight and strong quality of the production. The ‘Moscow studio symphony orchestra’ appears on two songs, as well as guests like Lajon Witherspoon (Sevendust), Daniel Tompkins (Tesseract), Max ZT, Björn Strid (Soilwork, The Night Flight Orchestra) and Eric Zirlinger (Face The King). If all of this sounds intriguing enough, check the bands first born and wait for more upcoming quality music from them.

Infinite Translation – ‘Impulsive attack' – Full-lenght – 2010

Another thrash release that’s pretty hard to review for me… The new wave of thrash bands, which appeared in the last few years, really proved that they are worthy heroes of presenting the style in nowadays time. On the other hand, there are many gangs which are being put under the same umbrella as the pioneers of the genre, just being lazy copy-cats. This for piece ensemble, which runs in my CD-player, is the perfect example of what is called ‘The Golden Middle’, in couple words ‘Just playing their own movie’, and which will always be constant in the composing process. I don’t have to say that the album and band have potential for something better, but the only thing needed is a little pinch of ‘their own’ recipe. Nevertheless, here we have 8 songs which will devastate your brain! The album starts with the furious instrumental ‘Escaped’, which announces the furious and heart-beating ride until the very end, where you come face to face with ‘Fear the Face of Death’. Another thing worth mentioning is that eh artwork was drawn by the legendary Ed Repka, who has been working with some cult bands like ‘Death’, ‘Megadeth’ etc… A descent piece of music, worth your while. 

Thy Fallen Kingdom – 'Un(demo)cratic society' – Ep – 2010

Here is the second release from these 5 Singaporeans, and again I'm quite surprised by their creativity and musicianship. This is 1 year older that it's predecessor, and it's better that it too. 4 Songs now done in great thrashing way, sounding modern and influencing too. I admire the diversity in the songs and their catchiness in the same time. Again with similar production quality, but now there are more detailed elements and fragments implanted. In the 2 paged booklet the lyrics are featured, and most of them speak about humanity, society and the casualties of modern-day living. The vocal is authentic and has its own way of singing clear and loud. Most of my thoughts are foretold in the previous review, so I don't know what quite to say now. This band is one of my favorite young hordes and I have big expectations about them. Two demos in two years are a progress with great dynamics, and a full-length would be great for every fan of them. They still sell the demos, so order from the band soon, before they are all gone. 

Nadir – ‘Eco-ethic’ – Full-lenght – 2010

‘Nadir’ was formed in 2004 in Hungary. Since then they have 3 albums and 2 split-releases. Before that, they existed since 1993 under the name ‘Dark Clouds’ and had 2 albums released too. This is their latest release, and along with this I’ll review one of their splits too. Talking about this album, it just represents one of those modern death/core 2010 albums. And actually it sounds quite awesome!!! First you’ll come across the amazing production, with hard beats on the drums and harsh low guitar noise. The music can be situated as mix between death metal, core parts and thrashing elements. All in all it’s really worth listening to those 29 minutes, put in 9 songs. On of the things that differs from other bands in the style is the absence of clean vocal (which is great), and also the song constructions are more open minded and complete. Every song has everything, from tempo changes to breakdowns, ending with fast/slow parts… At some moments you can feel symphony sound, but that’s just at precise situations to complete the feeling. This is already an experienced band, and I’m sure they know what they are doing and which directions are taking. They just need to keep up this tempo of constant releasing and producing new ear breaking pieces!!! Highlight point: ‘FUCKING AWESOME SOLOS’!!! Available at my distro!

Band: [email protected]

Last Act Of Defiance – ‘Sadistic blessings’ – Full-lenght - 2010

The first independent beginner of this new Macedonian band, found its place on plastic. The bend is formed by veterans of the Macedonian metal scene, which put their forces in this thrash/crossover quartet. The album is a D.I.Y release, which is pretty much natural for this kind of music. The booklet has 8 pages, and it’s filled with song lyrics, images of the band members, and gratitude to the people who helped this CD to see the light of the night. What happens with the music, is that the songs are so fast and powerful, they’ll make you jump right in the center of a mosh, and sing along the melodies and angry choruses!!! With first hearing, this album isn’t so spectacular, but with every new hearing it just gets better. The thing that didn’t offer so much enjoyment at the beginning is the production. In this case, the production with its sterile sound almost killed the whole energy in this. Although every instrument sounds awesome, the production just doesn’t keep the album alive. Zejtin could have destroyed the drums totally, at least from what I hear from his other band ‘Nihilist’, but here isn’t the case’. Highlights: ‘Thrashin Crew’, ‘Really Angry’, ‘City Of the Damned’, ‘See You In Hell’… Anyway, I recommend this sadistic blessing to every thrash and crossover fan! 

Impaler – 'Nightmare attack' – Full-lenght – 2010

When thinking about it, it seems like e really great time we had this past 10 years, in the 2000's I mean. It was the time of the modern thrash revolution and many bands labeled that period, the period of my generation... Wow, we have 'our time' now! Well, this is maybe one of those releases that close that golden period, with another, 'bleached' music to play. However this music is insignificant to the scene, yet it is one of those CDs that call the inner-you to drink a fuck-load of beer with your friends, and bang every bone on your body... Here are 8 songs, done in regular, hmm, usual new-wave Thrash and reminds mostly of 'Violator's and 'Fastkill's works, actually is a mix of those two. These 3 Japanese guys play this energetic and fast, violating and insulting, they play it from the heart. Shout out bad words, in bad English, about everyone that annoys and surrounds them!!! I wouldn't say that they have a great future, but if they continue doing this, I'll be one of those who'll always support them, no matter how bad the times may get... Available at 'Stay Pure' Distro!

Hall Of Sins – 'Promo' – Demo – 2010

In the past period, the Macedonian soil started boiling!!! Probably it got bored being choked by same, boring bands, so it pit it's fire and conceived brand new, mighty hordes... Although 'Hall Of Sins' aren't quite 'new', what they present here is far beyond their beginnings. The music is mature, the arrangements are great, and the atmosphere is hot! Five songs, of which the first 3 are final, and the other 2 are demo recordings, but the sound is also good. There are a lot of psychedelic moments, remarkable vocals which remind much of 'King Diamond'. The vocals are real signature of the piece, as well as the lyrics that are occultist, mystic, dark, and at some moments (take for example the explosive track 'Devil's Domain') antichristian oriented. The production and performance are awesome, and they put down the dark curtain which leads you to certain doom... By me, this is the band that has the highest potential from all other Macedonian bands, to succeed abroad. I hope that they'll put out their first album soon and we can get the whole, dark image of theirs. Recommended for LOUD LISTENING!