For Those About to Squawk: Rebel Wizard, Haunt, Cemetery Urn

What up, beak freaks? It’s me, Waldo here, looking to tell you about some new releases… Does seem like there’s not too much going on this time, but hey, Decibel keeps me in seeds so I gotta do it.

So it seems like there’s more and more “blasphemous” black metal popping up… Who’s going to me the most blasphemous (spoiler alert: it’s not this release).  Prosthetic is releasing Voluptuous Worship Of Rapture and Response by Rebel Wizard and it’s black metal… sort of.  So this is a little confusing to your boy Waldo, the guitar work here is excellent, different, as this is not some cave recorded evil fuckery. This has riffs and melodic leads, like some progressive metal-style melodic leads. There seems to be no low end at all (which isn’t surprising for black metal) and the vocals are screeched, but come across kind of samey in the end. Production-wise this is pretty slick and lends to the guitar work, which is the shining moment here. I can’t decide if I like this or not; this seems like it’d appeal to the casual black metal fan, and I assume live one would be impressed by the guitar work. This is NOT KVLT. I dunno…

5 Fucking Pecks.

So people are kinda freaking out about Haunt and their new record, Burst Into Flames, on Shadow Kingdom.  First of all, let me say that lately there has been a huge retro thing going on in metal recently and Haunt follows suit perfectly. So this is definitely NWOTHM (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal), like through and through, and while there are no surprises here, this is pretty ripping. So what’s up with this? This is throwback, trad metal. The guitars are speedy, the vocals high and the production clean enough to not make this sound like 1982. There are songs about “metal” topics such as “Crystal Ball” and “Frozen In Time.” Like the Log Lady said (Twin Peaks, foo) “If you shut your eyes, you’ll burst into flame” and this one is on fire.

7 Fucking  Pecks.

You into some raw-ass death metal? Seems like there’s a lot of this stuff lately, but Cemetery Urn is for you. Barbaric Retribution follows along with this new wave of crusty-as-peck death metal. Detuned guitars, growled vocals and mid-paced blasts are all the rage here. Problem is, there’s too much of this sorta thing for this to stand out in any real way. Is it good? Yes. Is it serviceable death metal? Yes. Are there other bands that are doing this thing now? Yes. I’m pecking digging it though.

6 Fucking Pecks.

Untile next time, foos…