Well the band has apparently matured since then with one album since, that have not heard, called Purge and Purify, that gets rid of those tongue in check vibes on favor of more serious traditional metal tropes. And that appears to continue for album number 3, the very seriously named Acheron.

With this more mature attitude (songs titles like “Rotting Crows”, “Salem”, “Mass Grave” and “Holy Venom”) comes improved song writing and evolution as Acheron is pretty darn solid. It still has a bit of an Unearth /Shadows Fall thrashy metalcore ‘modern metal’ vibe but with an added element of pure melodic death metal and regular death metal. I think they could now be compared to the likes of Sylosis (though I have not heard the new one).

Big crunchy guitars deliver a wide array of thrashing, blasting and grooving riffs and a couple of the songs I’d even go so far as to say are really fucking good, like “One Way Overdose” with its furious blast and nice thrash jaunt or lumbering “Mass Grave” with surprising cello/orchestral outburst.

The album avoids clean whines or ballads, sticking to a pretty thunderous approach from start to finish, resulting in a solid album from a band I didn’t think I’d hear from again, and certainly not this impressively.

Name aside this is actually pretty good modern, shreddy deathcore/metalcore that has a bit of an All Shall Perish/Despised Icon meets early Black Dahlia Murder flare to it. Its got a some nice shredding solos amid the faster, multiple screams and growls, extremely well produced slicing and breakdown-ing, and is overall very very tight scathing release.

Of course, genre haters will hate it, and frankly it’s a style that’s played out and unoriginal, but I have to say there is a real energy to this release that’s hard to deny. Along with the really strong, modern production/mix/master courtesy of Vladimir Cochet (of Mirrorthrone), who seems to be putting together a solid stable of Swiss mixing master including the aforementioned Conjonctive, Attack Vertical,  Dysrider and Voice of Ruin. Hail to the Beast is pretty non stop, relentless blasts, breakdowns and shreddage.

The only real respite is the instrumental “The Last Breath of A Dying Earth”, which still heavy as fuck, just with a few restrained/ acoustic bridges thrown in. Other wise, from “Warface” to closer “Into the Lions Den”, this thing rips pretty fucking hard, and only the most ardent ‘core’ haters would not be moved by the likes of “Towards Ruin and Oblivion”, “Premature Burial”or more lumbering title track. Only “Harvest of Humans” seems a very slight misstep, with a choppier, more experimental gate and some programming/keys.

As I said earlier, maybe this and the Conjonctive album caught me at the right time where chaotic, ritualistic or claustrophobic materiel like Excommunion, Nightbringer, Dodecahedron, Ulsect and The Ruins of Beverast have clouded my thoughts, and I needed a simple, bruising palette cleanse. Mission accomplished.

Conjonctive are a six piece because they have two vocalists, Randy Schaller who provides the low growls and Sonia Kaya who does the higher register screeches. It generally works and fits deathcore paradigms, and Kaya is fairly convincing with array of off kilter deliveries. . But musically, this is pretty standard but very, very effective modern deathcore. Other than some atmospheric keyboards here and there, this is an impressive, breakdown filled assault, that makes no bones about what it is.

The standard opening breakdown/intro “Purgatory” signals the band’s intent right away with a quick atmospheric start and big burly march and groove leading into “You’re Next” displaying a quick show of power with a huge breakdown right away. The title track also shows the same mid paced rumble with a fierce  energy. Unlike their label mates Hybrid Sheep, the band never gets too techy or noodly, knowing they are not a tech death band with breakdowns. There’s some mildly fast parts (“Let Blow the Grim Wind”, “Hills of Abomination”), but Hiroshima Will Burn this is not.

It’s not quite full on down tempo/chug core, but there is a nice restraints and menacing lurch to the album as high lighted by “Down in the Abyss”, the crushing “The Cult of the Shining Planet”, “Lumbering Burn Your Eyes”, and the shoulder bobbing “Defeat the Sun”. Closer “Constellations and Black Holes” has some black ish metal Carnifex-y keyboards, but its not over done.

Conjonctive hits all the genre sweet spots on In the Mouth of the Devil. The guitar tone of the 2 seven stringers is devastating, the atmospherics are low key and balanced and the dual vocals don’t do anything off base like clean singing or croons, which would have been easy to fall into with a female lead. In all a very enjoyable and at time devastating example of a genre that needs some help.

Granted, initially the heavily accented vocals of female singer and occasional  cellist Joelle Graz seem to be a bit off key here and there and a bit overly operatic, but like the album as a whole, they grow on you, especially when some effects are used to layer her voice to better effect. Growler  and  synth programmer Johnathan Pellet has a powerful, burly growl, a bit deeper than usual melodic death metal growlers, and therein there are similarities to the recent Embryo album I reviewed, so then also an innate early Crematory vibe. A more modern comparison might be Deadlock’s first album Earth Revolt, mixed with Nightwish and some of the band’s remaining power metal roots (especially some of the solos).

The material has more beef, blasts and heft than your standard Napalm Records, female fronted cleavage core, so isn’t neatly as purely gothic or sugary but certainly would appeal to that crowd. The guitars are big and crunchy and keyboards deliver ample cellos, brass and pianos to the backdrop. The result is a big, lush and brash album that has some surprisingly enjoyable moments.

Standout tracks like like the opener “Against Your Hold”, the above title track as well as the rangy and varied “Times of Decay” (which has a nice mix of blackened blasts and doomy dirge), somber cello laden chug of “Bliss in Darkness” all hold up an deliver enjoyable even often catchy moments (the more urgent “The Reckoning” kind of burrowed its way into my mind) that are pleasing to the ear. There’s also the standard slower, more emotional numbers in “Blind Avengers” and closer “Embers Reflection”, though the band never really lean too heavily on pure ballad dynamics, or overly operatic cheese, generally still keeping things within a solid crunch throughout.

I kept trying to put this album on the pile I keep for ‘meh’ albums, as a potential trade or sell CD in a few years, but as I got deeper into the review and gave it more listens, it became a permanent fixture on my CD shelf. Not too bad for a former Swiss power metal act I had never heard of.