Rivers Of Nihil - The Conscious Seed Of Light Review

This year I tried to focus more on underground and less known bands than on the "big ones". I was hoping to find talented bands that deserve much more attention and my results were unbelivable so far. You simply have no idea how many young bands put out incredible releases in every sub genre of metal and a few people get to listen to them and enjoy them. If you don't know this blog yet : check out realmofmetal.org, it became my favorite source of metal straight from the beggining. They post new music daily, only new releases, some of them even leaked, but I don't want you to steal the music! Just download anything you want and buy what you really enjoy. Every album on that page has a "buy" link as well, use it when you really enjoy an album! 

So this is like a said my daily source of metal, and a few weeks ago I found a band with a cool name that I also heared in the past but I never gave them a listen. The album cover, name of the album and the names of the songs were also killer, and the music genre "technical death metal" is also one of my favorites, so I decided to download the album and check them out. After only 1-3 songs I already knew that this new album called "The Conscious Seed Of Light" by the american quintet RIVERS OF NIHIL (MetalBlade Records) from Reading, Pennsylvania will become one of my favorite 2013' releases and bought the album shortly after. 

The album starts with an intro called "Terrestria I : Thaw" that is a beast of an opener for an album. It starts in an almost atmospheric black metal style with tremolo picked guitars and a dark ambient and ends with fast blast beats and double bass patterns. It is a very structured intro that gives the listener an awesome first impression about the album in my opinion. The transition between the intro and the next song called "Rain Eater" is also very tight and good. "Rain Eater" is probably my favorite track of the album because of the catchy guitar riffs and really powerful vocals and lyrics. Vocalist Jake has some very agressive screams / mid - low growls and can also do some tight harsh vocals. No clean singing, no bullshit, just pure brutality and awesomeness. 

All songs fit perfectly to eachother and create and unique atmosphere that you will not find on no other album. The tracks were very well composed and the band consists of very talented and dedicated musicians and songwritters. Every single riff on this album is awesome and as a fan of technical death metal you will enjoy them without doubt. 

The drumming is very diverse and dynamic and was recorded very tight. If you concentrate on the drums while listening to the album, you will hear a lot of details that make this album so good. The album also has a bass line that doesn't always play the same thing as the guitar and sounds very deep and tight. Very good mixing/editing and mastering as well, respect Erik Rutan for that! The guitars also have a very cool distorted sound that sounds very good. You can find very fast tremolo picked riffs, classic death metal riffs, more atmospheric "let ring" riffs, breathtaking solos, some very fitting and interesting speed/tempo changes and much more on these 41 minutes of intense metal. It is a very technical album with an progressive vibe and a lot of other influences that will make you listen to it over an over again; there's always something new to discover!. 

All in all, "The Conscious Seed Of Light" by tech death quintet Rivers Of Nihil is one of the best releases in the metal world this year in my opinion and it is something for every fan of bands like Obscura, Beyond Creation, Spawn Of Possession, Decapitated, Fallujah and so on. Buy this shit! It's worth the money ! Stay metal.

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/riversofnihil

Buy Link:

www.indiemerch.com/metalbladerecords/band/rivers-of-nihil

Blood Red Throne - Self Titled Review

Blood Red Throne is a technical death metal band from Norway formed in 1998 that released their very anticipated new self titled album in May 2013 through Sevared Records .

Like Cannibal Corpse or The Black Dahlia Murder, Blood Red Throne is one of the bands that will not dissapoint their fans on any of their releases. They always keep their brutal sound and style on every album but still evolve  musically from record to record.

This self-titled album is a very mature release. Every single riff is unique and really agressive. The guitar sounds very good and the whole album has a very good tone quality and was perfectly mixed and mastered. The drums also sound very cool and have a dry sound. The drummer is a very talented musician in my eyes and plays very dynamic drum patterns. He plays several kinds of blast beats perfetly and is a master of the double base. Like on the predecessors, the vocals on this album are very variated and well-fitting. The vocalist can sing the words very dark and low but also can turn them into really cool high growls that sound like black metal vocals, a thing that I personally really enjoy.

The songs themselves are very diverse and good structured. Although they all may sound very identic at first, after listening to them a few times you will remark that they're unique and that you can dinstict them easily. Musically they have true death metal influences combined with some brutal death metal parts and black metal tremolo picked riffs under some really fast and tight blast beats. All songs are very fast and agressive and you'll not get a break till the album is over. I also really enjoy the "thrashi" and "groovy" riffs on the album, and although this album is clearly an elitists dream, the band also has a cool part in the song "Deatholation" where core-fans could two-step to. All in all it is a very diverse album with very good songs and an evil atmosphere. 

The artwork of the album is really elegant and well-fitting and I have to say that "Blood Red Throne" is a very underrated band. Check out the songs, "In Hell I Roam" or "March To The Undying" to get an idea how the album sounds like. I would recommend this record to every death metal fan, from fans of Spawn Of Possession to fans of Dying Fetus, from Belphegor fans to Aborted fans. Check them out and enjoy the good music!

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/BloodRedThroneOfficial

Goddess Of Fate - A Reversal Civilisation Review

To be honest, I am a very big fan of indonesian metal and I really love the metal scene there. I always see posters from indonesian festivals or concerts that always have more than 10 bands with short sets playing there, all of them with brutal, unreadable logos and one-two bad quality demo songs on youtube. Most of them are playing deathgrind or brutal death metal and sound nearly identical, but there are also exceptions.

I will review an EP released in 2011 by a technical death metal  band called "Goddess Of Fate" that clearly separates itself from the rest. There's something special about this EP, everytime I'm listening to it I'm asking myself : "Why the fuck are indonesian bands so underrated?"... Man, this is a masterpiece, I coudn't believe my ears the first time I turned the music on. This is no bad quality demo grind shit with no structure and permanent blast beats and pig squeals, this is a very solid and complex release containing lots of elements of other kinds of metal. This is death metal at its best!

The music is at some parts very technical and complex, especially the guitars and the bass. The drums fit perfectly to the riffs and play very diverse beats at some points. The whole EP has a progressive touch, you can hear it the best when listening to the mighty 11'a half minute track "A Reversal Civilisation". You can also hear the melodic side of the band on tracks like "Putaran Sistem" and "Demolition". The band managed to structure their songs very well, wrote catchy melodic riffs and leads as well as crushing slamming grooves and fast and breathtaking solos that are tight like some Trivium solos or chaotic, confusing and fast shreding  solos like on some "Cannibal Corpse" songs, wildly sweeping till your face starts to melt!

I thing that I really enjoy on this ep is the fact that they used clean guitar parts very often and that they managed to write meaningful lyrics in english and indonesian! As far as I understand, the EP is lyrically about the end of the world, and I really like the artwork. Another thing that I like on this release is the bass that isn't "shy" and only follows the guitar, it breaks loose at some points and plays own melodies or small solos or leads like on "Putaran Sistem" or "Praxis". The SFX on the titletrack" A Reversal Civilisation" is unique and I really like it and the production is very well done; it's still raw but all in all it fits to the sound. 

The angry low growls of the singer makes this EP nearly perfect, I would recommend this EP to all death metal fans that like melodic and technical parts in their music and are not afraid of discovering something total new from a country full of amazing bands like Goddess Of Fate, Indonesia. Check them out!

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/goddessoffate

Free EP Download:

www.mediafire.com/?f8g9ob9waaa8rjw

Limerance - The Aftermath Review

I first listened to Limerance back in 2011 as I was in search for technical death metal/ technical deathcore bands. I found the track "Children Of The Sun" on youtube and I directly loved their sound. A few weeks later I figured out that they are from Mexico and released one ep named "The Aftermath" in 2010.

This EP is a fantastic release, Limerance is in my opinion the best band from south america and they are very underrated. The ep comes with 2 acoustic songs that are written in a mexican style, two very enjoyable and relaxing songs with beautiful melodies and a "feel-good" ambience. The name of one piece fits perfectly to the other 4 tracks on the ep; "Storms Become Nightmares". If these two tracks were like two storms in a positive way, the rest of the ep is a dark and chaotic nightmare for you!

This is pure brutality polished with beautiful melodies and leads, technical riffs that go from mighty sweeps to crushing breakdowns that will make you want to kill and destroy! The guitarists show us on every single track how high-skilled they are by playing really complex riffs and insane solos. They also use diverse techniques like sweeping,taping, and so on... The drums are dynamic and diverse too, the drummer is really sick and one of his strengths are the fast and tight blast beats. The bassist is not just using the first string, you can hear that he's going with the guitars and plays very complex rhythm parts. The music is very well structured and you have a big variety of riffs in every song. If you like songs that have parts that get repeated over and over again, Limerance is not the right choice for you! This is complex technical death metal/deathcore at its finest! The album is like I said very technical but it also has a progressive touch. This masterpiece can be enjoyed by a "true" metalhead as well as by a "mosh/corekid".

Lyrically, Limerance is screaming and growling about deliverance, inner struggles and revolutions I think. The voice of the singer is devastating, a low growl that is not too low and not to high, it has a lot of power and fits perfect to the tracks. He also uses a sharp and kind of thin high growl that I personaly like.

I really like the cover of the album and the songs are really good mixed. It's not perfect but I really like that rawness in the songs.

Limerance managed to create their own unique sound on this EP and I hope that they will continue writing music in this style in the future. Check them out, they could become your new underground metal band soon!

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/LimeranceMetal