The Scrolls of Akhenaten: April 12th, 2024

April 13, 2024 / Akhenaten / Leave a comment

This one is coming to you a day late because life got in the way this past week and I didn’t get as much time to hammer out which albums I wanted to recommend to you all on Friday. I was also busy hosting a show at The Traxide in Montreal featuring some rather excellent bands from the Maritimes, namely the blackened death metal stylings of Paratomb and progressive metal wizardry of Omnivide, along with local thrashers Grimhold and death-sludge riffologists Obelisk. Now that I’ve got a few moments of free time to myself this Saturday (between recovery) I’m going to make up for it. Read on for some of your (somewhat) regularly scheduled riff recommendations!

Black

The first time I heard this record I was absolutely floored and to this day it continues to shock me. I’d like to thank Devon Milley for this recommendation as it was through him that I discovered this band. I’ve never heard a band so perfectly emulate the sound of Darkthrone’s early material. Everything on this record from the guitar tone to the drum approach to the production to the vocal approach is the closest I’ve ever heard a band mimic that style, and they do it wonderfully. The riffage is so pure and kvlt and trve and devoid of any bells and whistles. Even the vocals sound eerily similar to the range and tone of Nocturno Culto on those classic black metal albums as well as the post-Panzerfaust era of the band. All you have to do is listen to the first track here, “Three Desecrated Hosts”, and you’ll see what I mean. If you’re at all a fan of that style of Norwegian black metal, then Germany’s Pakkt is a must-listen, especially for Darkthrone die-hards like myself.

Death

I first discovered this band through a video made by the YouTuber known as The Punk Rock MBA. I think that guy sucks but I’d be lying if I said he hadn’t put me on to some cool music over the years. Human Remains is definitely one of those bands. The first time I put this record on I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. “A deathgrind diamond” as one Bandcamp reviewer named Brett put it, this thing is fucking weird. There are sounds on here that I didn’t even know a guitar could make before I listened to this thing. It’s exceptionally brutal, uncompromising, relentless, and unapologetically experimental. There’s plenty of moments where the music remains firmly rooted in brutalizing the listener with blast beats and atonal guitar riffs before launching into interludes that feel like they’re drawing upon bands like Mr. Bungle and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Of course Dillinger was probably influenced by this band considering that Human Remains predates them.

Doom

Wardehns – *Now Cometh the Foul*
**December 21st, 2018**
**Stoner Metal / Sludge Metal / Crust Punk**
**Independently Released**
**Wausau, Wisconsin, USA**
**Standout Song:** “Denim Dogs”

I was put onto this band through a friend of mine who just happened to be playing them out loud on a Bluetooth speaker while I was hanging with some pals at their house. I was pretty much immediately hooked by the quality of the riffage, the production value, and just how similar it felt to the kind of sludge metal that I am really drawn to: bands like Mastodon, Kylesa, and Black Tusk. The ones who are a little artsy but aren’t afraid to get deep, down, and dirty with their music. Wardehns certainly scratches that itch for me and I’ve had this record on repeat ever since that initial encounter. It’s monolithic in size, with every song imparting the image of a group of intrepid travelers and warriors climbing their way to the top of a frostbitten mountain, surviving blizzards and avalanches, and fighting horrible beasts all along the way. The album cover is indeed a perfect representation of what kind of music you’ll hear on this thing. It comes highly recommended.

Prog

I brought up Omnivide in the intro to this article not just to tell you about the show I was at last night, but also as a genuine recommendation for a band that kicks fucking ass that doesn’t live all that far from Newfoundland. This New Brunswick progressive metal outfit just released their debut album, A Tale of Fire, last month, and are currently embarking on a tour across Canada in support of it. Having seen them live a couple of times now as well as having listened to this thing all the way through time and time again I can attest to this band absolutely ruling. If you want your brain to be disassembled and then put back together wrong then this is the record for you. Their music certainly draws heavy influence from big-name prog bands like Between the Buried and Me, but there are also shades of groups like Cynic, Obscura, and Beyond Creation to be found within. If you like any of those bands you’ll almost certainly like this.

Punk

I was lucky enough to catch Flower at Varning Fest last year, an annual underground crust punk and metal festival that occurs in Montreal. They came up from New York City to play here and absolutely tore the place apart. I thought their live performance was already great but it was checking out their recordings after the fact on my own that really sold me on them. This right here is the kind of punk I like the most. It’s loud, aggressive, angry, and dirty as fuck. All the best crust punk is only a few steps removed from speed metal and black metal and Flower really embrace that vibe on this LP. The album opens with an atmospheric blackened guitar riff that reminds me extensively of Gallhammer and Darkthrone, before the unruly punk ripping starts at full force. It’s so gross and nasty, from the raw guitar tone to the punchy drums to the pissed off vocals. Flower are fantastic, and this LP absolutely slays.

Thrash

Mexico’s Phantom are pretty much everything I want from modern thrash. Their sound is supremely old school, drawing clearly upon the bands of the 80’s, with the Teutonic sound in particular being a primary influence. If you like Sodom, Kreator, or Destruction, or at least the way those bands used to sound back in the day, then Phantom may be for you. That’s not to discount the American influence in their sound either, because notes of Slayer and Metallica definitely crop up from time to time, but ultimately they keep things rooted in that more aggressive sound that veers on the edge of black metal without ever stepping forth into the blizzard. What makes this album even more impressive is that the dudes in this band are really young, most of them being around the ages of 18 to 20. For being as young as they are they’ve got a fantastic grasp of their instruments and their songwriting capability is excellent. I’m stoked to hear what they put out next.

Trad

I never thought I would unironically enjoy a NASCAR-themed metal band but then I am the Intimidator came out of nowhere and showed me the errors of my hubris. This is the new solo project of former Poison Idea guitarist Andrew Stromstad and the entire thing is lyrically and aesthetically based around the final day of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt’s life. If that wasn’t already enough to sell you on the concept, then I’m happy to report that the music contained within is just as fucking awesome. It’s old school speed metal that draws as much influence from Metallica, Motorhead, and King Diamond as it does from a blackened speed metal act like Venom and an epic doom metal band like Candlemass. While the record may be all over the map in terms of influence it is surprisingly consistent all the way through, featuring fabulous riff after fabulous riff and vocals that’ll put hair on your chest.

Non-Metal

Shpongle – *Tales of the Inexpressible*
**March 29th, 2001**
**Chillout / Psychedelic Trance**
**Twisted Records**
**Chobham, England, UK**
**Standout Song:** “Star-Shpongled Banner”

I discovered Shpongle years ago when I was still in high school. While sick and staying home from school one day I went down an enormously long musical rabbit hole on YouTube (this was back in the day before algorithms ruined everything) which eventually led me to a fan-made animated music video for the song “Star-Shpongled Banner”. I was so enamored by the combination of the music with the visuals I was experiencing made that song stick with me for years to come, and to this day I still revisit this record from time to time. While I don’t often find myself listening to electronic music, when I do I prefer the kind of stuff that’s outside the realm of the typical club fare. I don’t go to clubs often, mind you, but I have a hard time imagining that this is the kind of thing played anywhere outside of a hippie drug den. It’s not for everyone, but if you like weird electronica you should definitely check this one out.

~ Akhenaten

Album Review: Dark Era – Dark Era II

July 15, 2020July 11, 2020 / Akhenaten / 1 Comment

Dark Era – Dark Era II
December 21st, 2019
Blackened Crust Punk
St. John’s, Newfoundland
Independently Released

At this point there’s not much I can say about Dark Era that most people probably wouldn’t already expect. I’m a huge fan of them, especially seeing as how they were the very first local band I saw perform live in St. John’s before I actually moved to the city. They will always hold a special place in my heart for being an example of raw, unchecked aggression in exactly the way that I want to hear it when it comes to this style of unapologetically dark and deviant punk music. The way they seamlessly combine the speed and anger of punk with the atmosphere and beauty of black metal has had me hooked ever since. As such, when they surprised all of us and released their sophomore LP Dark Era II out of fucking nowhere last December, it blew my mind. So let’s dig in to find what makes this record tick.

The album begins with a fade-in on the track “Intro / False Awake”, which sets the stage with its mournful tones and midnight chords, painting a picture of a starbound sky at night adrift with astral bodies. I can already tell from this first track that the band’s sound has matured since Dark Era. They’re more intricate with their compositions, adding a lot of dynamics into the songs that really weren’t there the first time around. The awesome stop-start moments during the verses that allow drummer Kyle Gryphon to play some relentlessly fast drum rolls stand out to me every time I listen to this track.

The drums on this record steal the show as I’ve always considered Gryphon to be one of the best drummers in the Newfoundland metal scene, but this record confirms it. He has zero chill, pummeling forth with the force of an avalanche barreling down over Signal Hill and swamping all of downtown St. John’s in kilometres of icy savagery. If I had to compare him to any other drummer I’d say that a lot of the beats on this record, especially in tracks like “False Awake” and “Deceptive Elements”, sound similar to those of Devil Master drummer ‘Del’ (alternatively known simply as Zach). But despite Gryphon’s brutalization of the kit it doesn’t mean he’s unable to slow things down a notch. Some songs like “Take Flight” really take the slow and atmospheric route, requiring some groovy restraint on the kit that Gryphon performs with raw personality.

When it comes to the guitars, dual axemen John Putt and Thomas Whelan provide the trademark Dark Era style of punk-time triplets of big, bombastic chords that sound like they were run through a filter of liquid smoke. The guitar tones sound liquefied as they create a texture that could only be described with such adjectives as ‘mesmerizing’ or ‘hypnotic’. Even when the guitars are full on assaulting you like on “Deceptive Elements” or “Disconnect”, I feel like they’re lulling me into some kind of deep sleep from which only nightmares will be borne. In fact, much of the guitar work on this album bleeds together from song to song, but where that would typically be a bad thing to call out a band for doing, on this record it works. It makes the whole album feel like a cohesive piece.

While the guitars provide the atmosphere and texture to these songs, the bass, provided by Kady Meany, stays in the background of the mix where it creates the thick and soupy backbone to the record’s overall sound. When you do catch the bass shining through, like in the track “Moon Song”, it feels as though you’re listening to the sonic equivalent of a muck-laden mire that has come to life, dragging itself through a misty hellscape and leaving its swampy mixture of rotting plantlife and fungal detritus in its wake. When all three axes come together on this album the result is massive, sweltering and impenetrable in its opacity.

Vocalist Melanie Doralou is completely unchained on this record. Her trademark style of deep-voiced, raspy microphone assault stays hidden within the mixture of the other instruments during these songs, as if she’s nestled within the hedge maze of nightshade, thorned roses and poison ivy that is the instrumental side of the album. But her cavernous voice stings through as though a beast from within the maze, trying desperately to escape. On songs like “Power Reign” she lets some of her screams trail off, evoking the anger and catharsis that the band as a cohesive unit are trying to depict.

If I had to criticize one thing about this record it would be the use of fade-in and fade-out at the beginning and ending of the album. With “False Awake” we get a fade-in and with “Progress of Time” we get a fade-out. I’ve never been a huge fan of these tactics in music as it feels like a cheap way to get away without actually writing a ‘beginning’ or an ‘ending’ to your track.

With Dark Era II the band has created a worthy successor to their self-titled debut. The band’s sound has stayed largely the same and true to themselves yet they have also matured in terms of songwriting and complexity. Granted, most of the songs on here don’t come across as being overly complex in terms of technicality or progressiveness, but hey, this isn’t a prog band in any sense of the word. Rather, they come across as more complex in terms of texture, atmosphere and tone, expanding on the ideas brought forth on the debut album and making them sound more fully realized. If you’ve not yet checked out Dark Era II, do yourself a favour and join the kvlt.

Final Verdict: 9/10
Awesome

Favourite Tracks:
“False Awake”
“Take Flight”
“Power Reign”

For Fans Of:
Young and in the Way
Amebix
Gallhammer

~ Akhenaten

Heavy NFLD’s Best Albums of 2019

February 11, 2020February 9, 2020 / Akhenaten / 1 Comment

Well another year has come and gone and what can I say except that I am thoroughly impressed, flabbergasted and bamboozled at the amount of quality heavy music that was released in 2019 that came from our humble little island. The scene is expanding, and while that makes our job a tad more difficult in some respects, I couldn’t be happier. Making this list of the best records to come out of the province in 2019 was a lot more difficult than I was expecting, but all that means is that our home is exploding with talent, and hopefully the rest of the country will start waking up and taking notice.

But enough preamble, let’s get into this!

10. Birnsi – Disappear

Emerging as one of a small selection of heavier albums released in Record Production Month 2019, Disappear is the debut album from solo multi-instrumentalist Birnsi. The progressive metalcore sound of this release is unique in the St. John’s area, where the only bands doing this style either suffer from lower production quality, are either not very proggy at all, or went completely defunct years ago. In fact the only other band I can think of that is doing something like this is Aeria.

Birnsi’s sound is easily comparable to fellow internet multi-instrumentalist Canapplejack or to even to post metal bands like Toundra. The atmosphere is laid on thick on here, with emotive chords and minimalist melodies striking through the rest of the instrumentation. Pianos and synth-strings clash with technical acoustic guitar strumming and mathcore-style distortion, along with the occasional djenty passage. On top of that the drumming on this thing is on fucking point. If you like bands like TesseracT, Cloudkicker or other ‘ambidjent’ artists this thing is definitely going to be up your alley.

09. Bad Milk – Spitt

Bad Milk first erupted onto the St. John’s scene with their 2016 self-titled EP which I absolutely adored, but I felt was a bit too short to satisfy my craving for grungy, grimy sludge metal and stoner rock. Thankfully my prayers were answered as Matt Wall, Alex Pierson and Ashton Whitt came through with a full length offering of down-n-dirty riffing. With eleven songs of straight up balls-to-the-wall energy these guys did not pull any punches.

Compared to the likes of other local bands like Sinews, Puce and Geinus, Bad Milk fit right in with their brand of ooze-drenched grit. The drums punch you in the face. The bass crushes you. The guitars scream in your ear drums, and the vocals flay your skin from the bone. If you like bands like the Melvins or early, pre-Nevermind Nirvana, this is an album for you.

08. The Skeats – Bulletproof… by Midnight

Glovertowners-turned-Fogtowners James and Daniel Keats had a bit of a rough go a few years ago when they lost their bassist and vocalist Nicholas Saunders. But upon replacing him with new bassist and riff-writer extraordinaire Joshua Organ the group got right back into the thick of things and started work on their sophomore record, Bulletproof… by Midnight. With a few dots added to the title to give themselves a bit of a Megadeth-esque flair you can tell this album is going to be a bit more aggressive than their previous effort.

Leaving some of their punk rock roots behind the band ventures into a sound more influenced by hard rock and heavy metal to a point where it could be considered an amalgam of 90’s punk with modern radio rock. The riffs on this album are huge, the eldest of the Keats brothers sounds even more confident with his vocal performances, and the songwriting by and large is just damned good. Check this out if you like bands like Green Day, Billy Talent and Avenged Sevenfold.

07. Chain of Lynx – MMXIX

While Chain of Lynx initially started as a project between two friends who wanted to write and record singles to be released whenever they felt like it, focusing more on individual tracks than full albums, the group eventually succumbed to the full length desire and produced an entire ten track record for Record Production Month 2019, and the end result is fantastic.

With a sound combining elements from stoner rock with straight up hard rock to grunge and other elements from adjacent genres, MMXIX is a no-holds barred steamroller from beginning to end. The riffs on here are massive, the vocal melodies are catchy as hell, and the production is tight but not too tight. It’s got the perfect level of grime that a sun-baked desert rock-esque album need. If you love Queens of the Stone Age and other bands of that ilk, give this a listen.

06. Endrot – Planned Obsolescence

Endrot, one of multiple projects by multi-instrumentalist Mike Taylor, first came about during Record Production Month of 2018 with his debut album Killer Chainsaw Robot from Beyond! While that album was awesome in its own right, it’s the album that followed that that really captured my attention.

Planned Obsolescence is an ode to the grindcore-meets-melodic death metal of Carcass, played through an HM-2 heavy metal distortion pedal, that’s over as soon as it starts. Taylor pulls no punches on this thing, delivering stone cold solid riff after stone cold solid riff, bashing you in the face with it’s heaviness, speed and aggressiveness in about 15 minutes. There isn’t a single song on here that hits the two minute mark. It’s just twelve short tracks of pulverizing grind that ended up becoming one of my favourite local records of the year.

05. Yes, Officer – Lessons from a Snake Oil Salesman

Yes, Officer really took the St. John’s scene by storm in the last few months of 2019. On top of releasing his second album, Lessons from a Snake Oil Salesman, as part of Record Production Month 2019, solo musician Jeremy Harnum enlisted a backing band of fellow rockers to bring his vision to the stage and did a small run of (really awesome) t-shirts.

But none of those things should eclipse the fact that Lessons from a Snake Oil Salesman is a killer record, combining elements of post hardcore with grunge and alternative rock and even a little sludgey metalcore in there for good measure, it’s an eclectic mixture of sounds that help make the project stand out in the local scene. It’s hard to really find a band to compare Yes, Officer to, but if you dig any of those above mentioned genres then this album is definitely for you.

04. Dark Era – Dark Era II

What can I say about my (personal) favourite band in the local scene, other than that they surprised the hell out of me when they came out of nowhere with a full length sophomore album, with absolutely no warning, no promotion, and only two months after the release of their previous 9-minute long single “Nightscapes”. I haven’t even had a chance to review Dark Era II yet, but after multiple listens I can tell you that this record is worth your time.

The blackened crust punk of Dark Era is just as good on here as it was on their debut record from way back in 2016. The atmospheric guitars are back alongside the heavy, punishing drums and Mel’s unmistakable, pissed off punk yelling. Dark Era II surprised me not only in it’s sudden release, but also by being just as good if not better than the music the band has released in the past. Definitely check this out if you’re into bands like Amebix, Young and in the Way or Gallhammer.

03. The Tangerine Machine – Forward From Here

Gander-born shredding maestro Evan Foote has had a rough go in the last few years. Following the loss of his father a couple of years ago he found himself kicking it into high gear to write and record a full length album, with many of the lyrics dealing with that family tragedy and the aftermath of trying to push forward and move on, hence the album’s title Forward From Here. Joined by a group of highly capable musicians, The Tangerine Machine was born, and they did not disappoint.

This record blew me away not only with how good the songwriting is, and how well produced it is for a local record, but it also blew me away when it comes to the style. Having known Evan personally for years I expected something much more shreddy, much more djenty and much more melodic in the vein of Scar Symmetry. But instead what I got was something that I could best describe as “progressive grunge”. Evan’s crooning voice singing over these groovy-as-hell riffs was a total surprise, but a welcome one. If you want to know what the offspring of Rush and Alice in Chains would sound like, check this out!

02. Allagash – Cryptic Visions

It’s no secret that I am a massive fan of Allagash. Aside from Dark Era they are easily one of my favourite local bands. This is due in no small part to the superb riff-writing and songwriting skills of band mastermind Trevor Leonard. I still remember the first time I heard the band’s debut album and getting tingles in my spine when the introductory riff to “Fourth Kind” kicked in. As such I was beyond stoked to hear the band’s follow up to that record, 2019’s Cryptic Visions.

While I don’t think Cryptic Visions reaches those exact same heights of catchiness and memorability as the band’s self-titled debut, it is still without a doubt one of the best local records to come out in 2019. Leonard’s savage guitar playing on here is still rooted in that old school 80’s speed metal style, couple with a bit of thrash here and there and an ever so tiny smattering of black metal. Vocalist Regan Ryan’s signature thrashy yell is in full force on here while Jon Singleton absolutely kills it on the drums. When it comes to the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal, Allagash deserve to be in its highest echelons.

02. Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Jammers – Instant Cult Classic

I wasn’t always a fan of punk rock. I’ll get that out of the way right now. I’ve been turned onto it more and more in the last few years, thanks in no small part to a punk rock girlfriend, but also thanks to the debut record from the best-named local band, Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid Jammers. The band’s self-titled album was an earworm-infested, acid-infused joyride of banger after banger, and as such I was excited to hear what the group would do next.

Thankfully, Instant Cult Classic is as good as it’s title would suggest. I honestly didn’t expect it but the band surpassed the heights they achieved on their debut. Eschewed some of the surf punk influences in favour of a bit more of the hardcore side of things, Jim Jones produced a second record full of heavy hitters. The obvious band for comparison would be the Dead Kennedys, but imagine the Dead Kennedy’s with modern production quality and this record is what you get. Highly recommended.

01. Sons of an Eastern Moon – L’Anse Aux Metals

Perhaps the most exciting new band from Newfoundland is St. John’s folk metal outfit Sons of an Eastern Moon. Given the ancient Viking history of Newfoundland and the small but growing neopagan and witch community in St. John’s it’s honestly surprising that more bands haven’t emerged adopting the style of European bands like Amon Amarth or Eluveitie, yet here we are. Sons of an Eastern Moon went all in on this record and it comes across as a genuine love letter to both the folk metal genre and Viking history in general.

The guitar duo of Cory Fagan and John Roach do an expert job of crafting brilliant, memorable riffs that are still stuck in my head months and months after the initial listen. While many listeners have contentions with the vocal style of band frontman Kris “Thor Odinson” Ross, his high pitched, crazed-berserker screams remind me of defunct Vancouver power thrashers 3 Inches of Blood and I think it fits perfectly, may the naysayers be damned. If you like any of those above mentioned bands then I think you’ll dig this record. I know I did. That’s why it’s at the top of this list.

~ Akhenaten

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Gallhammer

The Scrolls of Akhenaten: April 12th, 2024

Album Review: Dark Era – Dark Era II

Heavy NFLD’s Best Albums of 2019