ALBUM REVIEW: Rebaelliun - "The Hell's Decrees"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 06/05/2016
Label: Hammerheart Records

This is truly vicious stuff and places the band up there with the best of Brazilian musical exports. For those that like their death with a layer of filth with Germanic thrash and doom undertones, this is a must.

“The Hell's Decrees” CD//DD track listing:

1). Affronting the Gods
2). Legion
3). The Path of the Wolf
4). Fire and Brimstone
5). Dawn of Mayhem
6). Rebellion
7). Crush the Cross
8). Anarchy (The Hell's Decrees Manifesto)

The Review:

Brazilians Rebaelliun return with their third studio album after a fifteen year (?!) break. Perhaps it is lazy to use Krisiun as a sonic reference point, but... there we are. This is deathly stuff: blasting drums and growling vocals, but with excellent riffs and changes. The opener “Affronting The Gods” is as vicious as it should be. Excellent lead breaks abound, right to the last.

The album has thus shown its hand early, as things continue in exactly the same vein with “Legion”- another nasty piece of work, delivered with utter conviction! “The Path of The Wolf” has grinding and lurching riffage mixed up with slower tempos and well delivered vocals. “Fire and Brimstone” sounds exactly like it should with that title and again uses the lower tempos to great effect. 

“Dawn of Mayhem” tips the album over the half way point, with a totally rage filled delivery- and again the lead runs really add something to the vortex of riffs. The band give themselves a theme song on this album and it mixes up doom type riffs with their more regular death metal fare.

The blasphemy continues with “Crush The Cross”. The quasi-title track finishes off these eight well paced tracks. This is truly vicious stuff and places the band up there with the best of Brazilian musical exports. For those that like their death with a layer of filth with Germanic thrash and doom undertones, this is a must.

“The Hell’s Decrees” is available here

Band info: facebook || official

FFO: Krisiun, Abhorrence, Angelcorpse, Mental Horror

Kataklysm - 'Of Ghost And Gods' (Album Review)

Words by: Hunter Young

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 31/07/2015

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

As is very common on their albums, they communicate a sense of battle, even though much of the content isn't necessarily war themed. I can't help but visualize a muddy battlefield, churned to blackened soup by thousands of feet stomping more and more blood into the ground, throughout ‘Breaching the Asylum’ and ‘The Black Sheep’. Maybe I am just really weird...

‘Of Ghost And Gods’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Breaching The Asylum (4:04)

2. The Black Sheep (4:33)

3. Marching Through Graveyards (5:22)

4. Thy Serpents Tongue (3:56)

5. Vindication (3:42)

6. Soul Destroyer (3:28)

7. Carrying Crosses (4:31)

8. Shattered (5:02)

9. Hate Spirit (4:36)

10. The World Is A Dying Insect (6:39)

Kataklysm is:

Maurizio Iacono | vocals

JF Degenais | guitar

Stephane Barbe | bass

Oli Beaudoin | drums

The Review

Having been around since forever, Canada's Kataklysm has dropped their newest, ‘Of Ghosts and Gods’, and it continues their path of destruction through those that hold their gods and ideals as the only path. Through blasting beats, overdriven riffage, and their trademark throaty growling, Kataklysm has given us perfect fodder for review!

Always a tad blasphemous, and holding nothing sacred, Kataklysm are always a great listen to me.  They've never had the same muddied up sound that plagues the death metal genre, always having a very clear sound that just bleeds brutality when they come on my mixes or on my SiriusXM radio when I have it on. And with this new one, holding it to the standard with which they have hoisted before, it stacks up pretty damn well.

‘Of Ghosts and Gods’ opens with a familiar style, using a sound bite that very often gets the blood boiling, and then a great lead in, slow tempos, then break neck into brutalizing your eardrums (Breaching the Asylum). As is very common on their albums, they communicate a sense of battle, even though much of the content isn't necessarily war themed. I can't help but visualize a muddy battlefield, churned to blackened soup by thousands of feet stomping more and more blood into the ground, throughout ‘Breaching the Asylum’ and ‘The Black Sheep’. Maybe I am just really weird...

Sonically, the album holds no surprises to the even fairly casual listener of Kataklysm, as they don't experiment with artistic BS, odd sounds, overly complicated sections, etc. It's dead simple, written to their successful formula Death Metal down your noise canals. Compared to earlier works (pre-04), their style is smoother, more accessible, and a little less grind. Of Ghosts and Gods is very polished, allowing them to present a clear idea of their sound and material, and is a really fun album, even for a casual listener of death metal. 

This album honestly performs to expectation, as a listener, and I would have no problems throwing this on at the gym, with friends, ignoring work... ‘The Black Sheep’, ‘Soul Destroyer’, and ‘Marching Through Graveyards’ are my highlights from Kataklysm's ‘Of Ghosts and Gods’.

‘Of Ghost And Gods’ is available everywhere now

FFO: Krisiun, Hypocrisy, Behemoth, Cryptopsy

Band info: Facebook | Official

Krisiun - 'Forged in Fury' (Album Review)

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 7/8/2015

Label: Century Media

  

‘With ‘Forged in Fury’ being the end result of the band’s longest gap between albums to date, it raises a fair question as to whether or not Krisiun has run its course. I would argue that one especially flat album isn’t enough to start making funeral arrangements.’

‘Forged in Fury’ CD//LP//DD track listing:

1. Scars of the Hatred

2. Ways of Barbarism

3. Dogma of Submission                                

4. Strength Forged in Fury                               

5. Soulless Impaler                           

6. Burning of the Heretic                 

7. The Isolated Truth         

8. Oracle of the Ungod   

9. Timeless Starvation                      

10. Milonga de la Muerte              

Krisiun is:

Alex Camargo | Vocal/Bass

Moyses Kolesne | Guitar

Max Kolesne | Drums

The Review:

To many people, Krisiun has been a band synonymous with unshakeable reliability in death metal for over twenty years. Refusing to compromise stylistically is fair enough, but Krisiun has had a couple of albums that have fallen beneath their typical standard and sadly, ‘Forged in Fury’ is one of those albums. The other most obvious example, ‘Ageless Venomous’, was almost completely ruined by an unconscionably loud and clicky kick drum sound rather than weaker material. While ‘Forged in Fury’ is certainly much easier on the ears than ‘Ageless Venomous’, it suffers equally from a lack of energy and excitement.

In taking a look at “Ways of Barbarism”, the album’s second song, we get a microcosm of ‘Forged in Fury’ as a whole. Long stretches of the song are built around redundant syncopation and uninspired blasting sections. It’s a strange thing to listen to: a band putting so much physical exertion into material that seems so half-hearted. With ‘Forged in Fury’ being the end result of the band’s longest gap between albums to date, it raises a fair question as to whether or not Krisiun has run its course. I would argue that one especially flat album isn’t enough to start making funeral arrangements. Still, even without using the rest of the Krisiun’s discography for context, ‘Forged in Fury’ is too long for the style and a chore to get through.

‘Forged in Fury’ isn’t without merit altogether, in fact even at its worst the album is boring rather than outright bad. The opening section of “Soulless Impaler” features a fun but deliberately-paced galloping rhythm that almost sounds like it’s building itself into something resembling a mid-tempo Testament song. Unfortunately, it isn’t too long before it finds itself in the same trap that hobbles most of ‘Forged in Fury’. Even so, it’s different enough from the rest of the album that it serves as a real bright spot when compared to the more or less mechanical nature of the material surrounding it. The song also reveals that it’s slower brooding riffs that seem to Krisiun’s strong suit in 2015, as weird as that sounds. That’s particularly surprising for someone like myself who was first introduced to Krisiun in the 90s with ‘Black Force Domain’. That album along with 2000’s ‘Conquerors of Armageddon’ remain the band’s best to date, and they were largely built on the strength of Deicide-style blast n’ trem, albeit faster and more vicious.

Twenty years later, the old formula has lost its lustre, and so have the rhythmic tricks that helped stretch out the length of its usefulness. There is still hope left, but it would likely require a drastic change, and that’s always a tough sell when something has worked for so long. There’s always a chance that they can coax something meaningful out of their tried-and-true methods on their next album, but ‘Forged in Fury’ plays like a case of diminishing returns. As a fan, it’s is all the more reason to root for something special the next time around.

You can pick up a digital copy here and a CD/LP copy here.

Band info: Facebook