Hey ultra-bangers (in these last times I am inventing every form of greeting haha!),
I received in May 2020 a 4-album pack from Art Gates Records but I am listening to them only in these days. Of them, you will not find "Soulcrifice" by Lined, that will be into another episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss".
IRDORATH - "THE FINAL SIN"
A black metal band that took their name after an island featured in the videogame "Gothic II"? Yes, it exists! So, I am going to present you this Austrian quartet called Irdorath (FB page), that is quite prolific since its last album, "The Final Sin", is the 5th one of a career started in 2005.
"The Final Sin" sees a good slab of black/thrash metal (blackier than thrash, to say the truth) throughout its 9 songs. Their style is essentially characterized by a good dynamicity and by a strong sense of melody, so there is a nice balancement between violence and, indeed, melodies. And as for many albums released by Art Gates Records, also this one has a clear but powerful production, avoiding in this way the classic lo-fi sound of the black/thrash metal genre.
In brief, recommended for everyone into Immortal, Nifelheim but showing, anyway, a good personality. Shame that I listened to this album only in these days!
EXIT - "TRACES OF HUMAN EXISTENCE"
For the lovers of At the Gates, here comes Exit (FB page), a quartet coming from Lucerne, Switzerland and existing since 1996. With their new album "Traces of Human Existence", also Exit arrived at their 5th full-lenght and even in this case the result is very positive.
We are talking about a band playing a melodic death metal that, full of ponderous vocals, combines perfectly a lot of aggressiveness with plenty of melancholic riffs and showing also a touch of despair, as already suggested by some songtitles like "Only Pain is Real". In particular, this song is awesome because it starts acoustic and proceeds through a great dynamicity where there are violent but melodic parts in blast-beat alternated with aggressive thrash metal-oriented mid-tempos. Remarkable are also the guitar solos here and there, and the first of them is present in the opening song "The Power the Hate the Greed", a track also released as a promotional video.
Other words are useless, so I suggest you to listen to what Exit have to offer. I am sure that they will not disappoint you!
VELKHANOS - "THE WRATH"
Differently from the first two bands, Velkhanos (FB page) are very young and "The Wrath" is their debut album.
Comprised of 10 tracks, "The Wrath" is an album following the wake of Children of Bodom (RIP Alexi Laiho). In fact, expect a combination between power metal and melodic death metal with plenty of virtuosistic guitar solos, folk-oriented acoustic parts, a vocal performance by Miriam alternating growls and clean vocals that can be also operatic, and with a dark mood that, accentuated by some keyboards, is already present in the gothic intro "In Absentia Dei".
Ok, I am not so much this particular kind of melodic death metal but I must confess that the mix offered by Velkhanos promises good things to come, so we must keep a pretty close eye to this Spanish quintet.
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