welcome to a new episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss", that is totally focused on some albums that I received many months ago by Mythrone Promotion. To say the entire truth, it sent me recently a new pack of albums that I initially received in digital format during the fuckin' quarantine. But, for the moment, discover the albums (and their bands) presented in this article. Ranging from death/doom metal to thrash metal, I am sure that they will not disappoint you!
MASTEMEY - "OBRAZ POZORNY"
What would you think of a band whose main infleunces aren't only metal acts like Machine Head and Gojira but also... pop acts such as Modern Talking and Duran Duran? Yes, this Polish quartet called Mastemey cites even that kind of bands into their FB page! And if all this wasn't enough, their second album "Obraz pozorni", released in 2019 by Defense Records in a beautiful digipack format, has a very strange cover artwork that's somehow psychedelic. So, what will be the sound of this band, whose career was started in 2009?
GROOVE/THRASH METAL! Yes, this is basically the music they play in this album consisting of eight tracks. They express it through a good variety because, in according to the different situations, it can be technical, noisy, fast (but only in few moments also in blast-beat, like in "Sumienie stłumione"), melodic or atmospheric even in a psychedelic way (as in "Podróz jedenasta", where there are also ambient parts in the end). The vocals of the singer respects all these changes with various tunes, so to range from desperate screams (an aura of despair is often present throughout the album) and clean vocals. The only problem is that the lyrics, but also everything written on the booklet, are totally undecipherable if you don't speak Polish haha! So, this "Obroz pozorny" isn't a masterpiece (for me, it could be faster and more aggressive) but if you like groove/thrash metal combined with some experimentations, then, it's fit for you... and believe me that there aren't any traces of Modern Talking and Duran Duran into the album!
SANDBREAKER - "SANDBREAKER"
Many bands are lyrically inspired by the Lovecraft's abominations, others by the R.E. Howard's Conan... and still others by Frank Herbert's "Dune" like these Polish maniacs named Sandbreaker (FB page), that I included into "Come on, burn my ears! #9". They are a trio (now a quartet thanks to the addition of the guitarist Kamikaze) that released last year a debut EP through Defense Rec and Mythrone Promotion. Actually, maybe it's too late to talk about "Sandbreaker" since they published just this year their first album "Worm Master" but... it's NEVER too late to talk about an interesting release!
You know, I am not so much into the slow metal but, fortunately for my mental sanity, "Sandbreaker" isn't so agonizing because it lasts only 15 minutes per four songs. In fact, we are in presence of a combination between the putridity of death metal, the heaviness of doom metal and the desertic tunes of stoner, and all this through tracks that are shorter than in the classic death/doom metal standards. So, expect hypnotic riffs, low growls, some atmospheric solos, at times very slow drums (no, no fast tempos here!) that can be focused also on tom-toms in a somehow ritualistic manner... and some mantric lyrics in which curiously you can find the word "sand" in every song! So, are you ready to discover the Planet Arrakis through Sandbreaker? Yes or not, I am ready to discover it better by listening to their "Worm Master"!
Железный Поток - "MYSTIC"
Fuck, I hate when a band name is written in Cyrillic because I never know how to pronounce it haha! But I know the English translation of Железный Поток (FB page), that means "Iron Stream". So, Iron Stream, that named in this way after "The Iron Flood", a novel by the Russian writer Alexander Serafimovich published in 1924, is a historic thrash metal band from Russia since they were founded in the far 1988. Unfortunately, no original members are into the line-up of the band but this isn't a problem because the current members are keeping very high the name of the Iron Stream. And now let's see why and how!
"Mystic", released this year by Defense Rec along with the Russian label Metal Race Rec, is the English version of the Iron Stream's 6th album "Мистик", originally published in Russian two years ago. It shows a technical thrash metal played with enviable creativity and offering surprises after surprises, all this allows to the tracks to have their own identities. For example, "Punishing Sword" is a non-stop headbanging attack; the following "Dark Lord" is slow and haunting, "Xenomorph" is a virtuosistic instrumental track that has also a keyboard solo (but who played it?); and without forgetting the titletrack, a puzzling riff-driven mid-tempo that hasn't only some acoustic parts but also a... an absurd saxophone played by the guest Dmitriy Rudokanov (but shame that the saxophone sequence is too short, and so I think it's almost useless)! Speaking about the guests, there are on vocals Daria Pirojkova (Mass Madness, whose current ultra-busy drummer plays also in Bestial Invasion) on "Mystic", Kirill Dulin on "Bloody Rain" (Slayer's "Raining Blood", anyone?) and a certain Dasha on the different version of the titletrack closing the album. Few bullshits, this is technical thrash metal at its best combining the early Metallica with Vektor, so I believe without any doubts that the Iron Stream did very well to offer an English version of this album!
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