The formula is pretty simple; jangly post rock atmospherics, ambiance and clean vocals littered with some big doomy, despondent Finnish crawls . Its almost the opposite of Sunless’s approach. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. For instance, the transition at about 6:30 into first number “A Storm Sermon”, does not. The nice solo and somber early Anathema riff at around the 10:oo mark of same track , does, as does the crumbling doom crawl at about 18:30.

Second track, the 25 minute “In Amidst the Silent Thrones” is initially a little more dynamic, but frankly about 13 minutes in, I’m bored, and it now feels like an instrumental album. Of course 14 minutes in, some vocals kick in with a decent doomy crunch, but I’ve already checked out. The clean croons 19 minutes in don’t help.

Frankly-I think this is a bit of a step back from Sunless, which had more pure Finnish doom. There are fewer vocals, they are more raspy that deep, and the looong songs make for a meandering listen, as you wait for something to happen. Unfortunately not much does…..

Where as the prior album, Underwatermoon, covered a more aquatic, seafaring concept, this one covers, well…. a Maestro and his dealing with a Satanic/demonic orchestra and its inevitable repercussions. The music conveys the theme well, telling a melodramatic story with epic, theatrical aplomb and musical influences from a vast array of genres. You name it, it’s here: black metal, death  metal, thrash metal, gothic metal, progressive metal, baroque, classical, all with the matching vocal arrangements to boot from deep growls, blackened shrieks, female vocals, clean male vocals and everything in between. Fear not though, this isn’t not unhinged chaotic melding of styles like say Maladie, but a more controlled Dan Swano project sounding effort that delivers a superb end result.

Track by track descriptions are hard on a deep, hour plus concept album with a host of guest musicians such as this, but after the intro “Antipath” seems  to be a pretty solid indicator of the albums overarching style and delivery. That said there are standout moments littered throughout the album pomp and circumstance. “Worms of Soul” has a nice haunting choir and a more foreboding, menacing vibe, “They Came With Eyes of Fire” delivers blackened seething start before a more restrained, expansive, storytelling track with plenty of clean croons to move the story along.

“Chronic Death” starts as a more burly death metal track, showing that Winterhorde can bring a little aggression to the mix when they choose and the eleven minute “The Heart of Coryphee” show the band’s more rangy, expansive side. However, this about the point in the  album where I feel I have heard everything and don’t have the desire to see how the story and album intimately end.  At 65 minutes, It simply wears on, no matter how interesting the concept and music. The following short instrumental, “A Dying Swan” seems to be a perfect end point. But instead, there is another 20+ minutes, including the somber title track and a mostly Kenny G lounge core, Saxophone laced ballad in “Cold”.

Still, in all a pretty entertaining, varied and ambitious album from a Middle Eastern band that does not hit you over the head with ethnicity but instead, a creativity and skill that is commendable.

It appears the band has fully embraced the symphonic elements to gloss their brand of Behemoth-ish melodic black/death metal, and it works really well, adding a sense of regal grandiosity to the  improved but still, not quite great song writing. The choir is an 9 piece actual choir, not synthesized one and it makes a big difference. These elements are not full on Fleshgod Apocalypse, but well placed around the 4 song, 22 minute EP.

“Requiem” starts the affair with dramatic  flair and a regal, sensual sway while second track, “”Diaspora” has a more moody controlled lurching pace.  Third track “Tremor” is only real filler, being a slower atmospheric number with spoken word/samples over the music and choir and it brings the EP to a bit of a halt. But “Decline” storms back with the EPs best cut . The guitars have a nice robust tone and founder/lone original member Sverker Widgren (also of  and Centinex and Demonical), has  a big gruff roar that I love in death metal.

I’m not saying Umbra will elevate Diabolical into the elite of Swedish metal, but with their choral arrangements they certainly stand out and have the chance to be a cut above with any future releases that develop on the quality of Umbra.

So then, the Marduk influence is pretty clear, and The Ugly follow through on their end as Decreation is a vitriolic, wall of riffs, tremolo assault of frosty nastiness that actually gives Marduk a run for their money, especially if you were a little underwhelmed by Marduk’s Frontschwein offering. It also serves as a nice placeholder for the next Dark Funeral album.

It’s vicious, it’s got seething, searing melodies and it’s razor sharp with a relentless pace other than the few obligatory militant, stirring marches . It’s also rather singular minded, taking no real tangents or risks, being an utterly safe Marduk clone. But that in itself is fine, when done this well and confidently.

The likes of opener “I Am Death”, “Legio Mihi Nomen Est”, “Slumber of the God” and blistering “Crawl” bristle and blast with brimstone and a few atmospherics or moodier slower marches and stomps like “Decreation”, “Cult of Weakness” and “Niburu” keep things from being a mindless procession of speed. And of course its all flocked with scathing rasps (from Ingemar Gustafsson of short-lived Bloodshed– who if you recall recorded Inhabitants of Dis back in 2002) and a biting sense of melody and a razor sharp production.

Closer “Lognerna til Aksa” ends the album with a 6 minute monster that blends both ravaging, seething speed menacing marches cementing the fact I actually gave Decreation a little more airplay than Frontschwein, so take that as you will as I’m no black metal expert. But for a no nonsense 45 minutes of Marduk-ian fury you could do worse.

4 songs in 43 minutes, all ranging from 8-15 minutes cover both doom and post metal paradigms. Vocalist Eero Haula covers impressive deep Finnish doom/death growls, blackish rasps and clean post rock croons, the later of which are a bit underwhelming. The riffs alternate between a familiar sullen Finnish/European  doom mope akin to Draconian, Shape of Despair etc, but is littered with shimmery, acoustic moments of airy clarity that recall the post rock bands mentioned above, and while acoustics/atmospheric bridges and segues have always been a part of doom, here, there is a little disconnect as they don’t quite meld with the death/doom aspect fully.

One need only listen to 15 minute opener “The Lay of a Coming Storm”  and third track “Avanturine” to hear these elements all at intertwined into long, rangy epics that flutter between depressive and  atmospheric. But the key to post rock as always been mountainous crescendos and peaks as the pay off, but Oceanwake seem to build then never crest, instead lulling back into an acoustic section that never really has an emotional impact other then being an acoustic bridge.

The  thing is, when going full on doom as heard on the first few minutes of “Parhelion”, Oceanwake prove themselves of being very capable at the rending, despondent tunes of their homeland. But even then, those underwhelming clean croons derails things. Closer  “Ephemeral” starts with a direct post rock crumble and lurch, but again there’s no peak or climax as the payoff, instead it goes the opposite way into sullen, layered melodic doom.

Sunless is awfully close to being a very good record if it simply stayed in the tried and tested Finnish death/doom realms, but over reaching into post rock hinders this release somewhat. Still, a solid record that shows a Finnish doom band can branch out a little, even if with mixed results.

These guys have actually been around since 2002 and have 5 prior albums under their belt, but they are new to me, and appear to be delivering their 6th album at a time when the style is in vogue. And if you’ve like those newer bands mentioned above, these veterans should appeal to you as they are cut from the same cloth. Throw some Disillusion (Back to Times of Splendor)  and some Solefald-ian clean croons in there as well for good measure and you have Loch Vostok‘s ambitious of a little over reaching sound.

And the end result is an album that’s sometimes good, but more often than not, just a little too much  albeit with an expectedly  polished production and lots of skill on display by the individual players. As you would expect from such a vast array of styles, the songs rarely sit in place or have time to sink in before shifting an morphing into something all together different. The vocals alone deliver about 5 different styles  from a high register rasp, deep grunt, operatic croon, power metal wail etc) and that’s often reflected in the music.

You get high octane, thrashing melodic death metal  (opener “Like Poison to the Stars”, the sturdy “Sentiment”) and big, shimmery, stuttering prog rock, (“I implode”,) to straight up heavy/power metal bordering on smooth AOR (“From the Waters”) and a semi ballad (the standout “Lost on Transmutance”). There’s lots of keyboards, lots of clean choruses, but just  enough bite and snarl to keep folks like interested such as the aforementioned opener “Fighting Fire with Blood” or the almost avant garde black metal (Ihsahn?)”Dead Sea Trolls”.

But with all the good comes tracks like “And the Storm Spread its Wings” or “Me Forgotten” and moments in almost the above track where the tangents just detract from the songs mostly some sort of bridge/ break or really sugary clean chorus that’s just a tad off. it’s just a bit too much despite impressive ambition but they are probably better off at delivering pure heavy metal/prog metal rather than trying to force more extreme elements into their sound.

But the imagery, themes and the abundance of sandy, Arabic synths and riffs is where the similarity ends, if still erstwhile for those wanting an easy point of reference. Scarab‘s take on death metal is far more tempered, melodic and mid paced, rather than Nile‘s more brutal vortex. Think Hypocrisy‘s mid paced chuggers or Morbid Angel‘s Gateways to Annihilation, but less twisty. The lengthy songs (5 to 9 minutes) are generally much more controlled and precise, like a camel’s steady plod through the endless dunes, and although there are ample moments of more swirling urgency, the entire album is rooted in more deliberate double bass marches.

After the intro, “Calling Forth the Ancient Spirits of Kemet”, the album’s longest and arguably best track, “Visions of  Blood River”, highlights the band’s considerable strengths. Unmistakable Egyptian atmospheres and riffs, gruff death metal bellows and a stern, consistent gait littered with more urgent blasts. And while this formula pretty well dominates the rest of the album’s next 6 tracks, it’s well done enough and contains enough memorable and solid riffs to keep you enthralled.

And, the Egyptian element isn’t overdone or forced either. The band’s innate geography comes over naturally in the shifting keys and serpentine riffs rather than lengthy chants or instrumentals. The likes of “Funeral Pharaoh”, “The Afterlife Illusions”, and the closer “Days of Burial Mask” all deliver essentially the same pace and atmospherics very well. The shorter, more direct title track and “Pyramid of Illusions” get a little more aggressive and to the point, but all rendered with the Arabic sway and shimmer.

No, these guys are not Nile, and probably have more in common with the likes of Coffin Texts or Narjahanam, but regardless, they have delivered a very solid album that adds yet another quality Middle Eastern inspired death metal act to the growing fold.

Though their fourth album, this is my first encounter with the band  (Richard Gulczynski, Jeff Sumrell and Dave Tedesco- also unfamiliar to me despite involvement in a few other projects)  and their epic brutality is a form of highly technical black/death metal layered with keyboards. My initial comparison is Scholomance meets Agiel as the black metal is tightly wound and intricate with some very high register main vocals (reminding me of Atheist meets Epoch of Unlight at times). Then the death metal side is a few deeper growls and and a much more death metal based percussive assault and of course some sweeping but not overbearing synths.

Despite  a production that is a bit dry and  drum sound that sound programmed, and synths that are pretty hollow  (Fleshgod Apocalypse or SepticFlesh this is not) oh, and that cover….. , it somehow all works very well, resulting in a pleasantly surprising and dare I say in this say and age, unique album I ended up coming back to quite a bit. The intense vocal delivery is intellectually fierce and the riffs are a swirling, dizzying intricate vortex that rarely settle into a single moment for more than a few bars, inherent to tech death metal. But there is a cold, high pitched gleam to them that retains some black metal aesthetic even if fractured and shattered.

Each of the songs offers up a little something different, but I rather enjoyed the controlled march that starts “Soiling the Fields of Putridity” and the surprisingly introspective “Wading into Mire” and the mechanically tinged “Heaving Bile and Ash”. Atheist again comes up as point of reference for the killer penultimate track “Pools of Ablation”.

Much like the recent Humul Tabat album, this is a great little surprise from an American black metal act that’s forging an unique path and sound, flaws and all. Go check them out.

For Souldrainer,  a band featuring ex Aeon member Marcus Edvardsson, that influence is Hypocrisy, and if you want to break it down to an even more specific sound, look no further than 1996’s Abducted and 1999s self titled effort. Souldrainer make no bones about their influence but they do it rather well. Big, crunchy but melodic guitars, space-y snyths, mid range rasps, a couple of moody ballads and a whole lot of Sc-fi/UFO/abduction/paranormal obsession make up the band’s third album, and while it’s a blatant Hypocrisy clone (clone seem more fitting here than rip off)  it’s still pretty enjoyable due to some strong song writing.

Using “Roswell 47” as kind of a backbone for the whole album’s sound, Architect crunches with gleeful energy and a huge, robust production. The album is generally mid paced songs with a few slower emotive numbers akin to “When the Candle Fades” or “Slippin’ Away” from Abducted and the title track from The Fourth Dimension. But regardless of the obvious frame of reference, there are just some downright good tunes here, good simple, catchy head bopping and foot tapping riffs and slightly clean sung choruses amid the rasps just come together.

The album isn’t going to win any prizes for originality or album of the year, but you can’t deny the solid likes of openers “Biological Experiments” or “Behind the Face”. The title track delivers the first slower, somber number the first of  a handful that bring a little more atmosphere to the proceedings followed by equally moody “This Release”, then and later by ‘Turn Your Back”.  ‘Die or Surrender” offers a more stern crunch while “For No Other” is a nice little melodic trot. “Nightmare Abduction”, as the title would suggest,  is pure Abducted/Hypocrisy/The Fourth Dimension era Hypocrisy, down the the chorus. “I Am the One” picks up the pace a bit before expected, orchestra laced ballad “Sorgestjarna” closes out the album fittingly.

Again- no album of the year contender here, but I’ve been giving it an awful lot of play time (it sounds great on a big stereo/speaker system rather than an ipod), and it will hold you over until Hypocrisy release another album.

Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing original or groundbreaking here—but if you want some new death metal that isn’t deathcore, too over the top or techy (Brain Drill), too brootal and blasting (Hour of Penance, Defeated Sanity), then Syn:drom should fit the bill with their tight and competent take on the genre.

At times I’m reminded of Sinister meets Trauma meets fellow Swedes Insision with the band’s no frills, but razor sharp and still complex version of death metal. The likes of “Obsolete Gods”, “In Utter Contempt”, “Trapped Beyond” (a pretty blistering mid album trio) and “Smashing the Face of Belief” stagger and stab with precision and vitriol, but without forcing it. The balance of blasting, lumbering grooves and solos is perfect with each track essentially delivering a solid mix of all three. Vocalist Jonny Peterson has the standard growl and scream, but isn’t overbearing or non existent—again, the balance is perfect, even on the vocals.

Other than the brief intro, (“Devoured”) the band forsakes any sort of experimentation or injections of forced ambience. Just nine tracks of well done death metal ending with an epic 5+ minute closing opus (“Winds of Disease”) that shows the band has some stamina to go along with all their talent and promise.

Recommended if you are looking for a young new band in death metal that plays by the rules, but still manages to make a lasting impression.