What’s up, mothersquawkers? Let’s get it the peck on.
Deep, minimalistic, black, doomy and cold. You like where this is going? This is a great way to describe Omens by the French band MONARCH! Fuzzy guitars, pounding drums and haunted vocals are the norm here for these doomsters. This thing is beaking DENSE, like a slow pummeling, until you get a brief ambient/noise interlude with a blast beat or two in the second half. There’s really no build up to a money shot here, but if you want the feeling of being run over by a steamroller, turn this up and flatten out. 7 Fucking Pecks
Like zombies? Like hordes of them? TERRORIZER release Hordes of Zombies on Seasons of Mist. Very passable considering ’06’s Darker Days Ahead was not so hot. This DEFINITELY not World Downfall era, although there are still two remaining members present. A little less death metal than it’s predecessor, one wonders why Pete Sandoval can play this but is absent from Morbid Angel. The pitch-shifted vocals could go away and generally detract from the overall rawness of this release, but it’s still OK. Even the absence of founding guitarist Jesse Pintado (R.I.P.) didn’t really seem to effect the riffing on this. It almost sounds like he never passed, but the beak on this could be a bit sharper. Hordes borders on mean and nearly hits that mark, but is too often slightly off center. 6 Fucking Pecks.
PHARAOH release the progressive Bury the Light, I guess if this is your thing this is good, who knows, I progressive power metal with pedantic lyrics about castles, spiders and wolves kinda sucks. A mix between Helloween, Maiden and modern power metal, this has less bite than my 98-year-old grandmother. I REALLY want to make some sort of Blue Murder joke here, but can’t think of one that doesn’t completely suck—like this band. Dust off your leather pants, pull your long hair back, don some sort of medallion that involves a metal band and skip it. 3 Fucking Pecks
“This is true death metal you bastards” claims the titular track from ASPHYX’s release, Deathhammer. Indeed it is, throw a bit of thrash, and some Scandinavian style death, and there you have it. If you’re familiar with this band, this is par for the course really, nothing new or surprising, Martin Van Drunen’s notable rasp is there with typical thrashy/deathy riffs. The best part of Asphyx is the catchiness. I mean, this band is downright hummable at times. If you’re not familiar with them, this isn’t a bad starting point. 7 Fucking Pecks
