corazine reviews

Symptoms and Cures

Corazine — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:59:15 GMT

Comeback Kid is doing the dual reach out. Everything here just screams goody goody GOODY for fans of vibrant, energetic, pumped up hardcore. Good fun but good and pissed off, righteous anger with a message of victory (pun intended?) - this is get the fuck out of the way music. But at the same time there's a distinctly metallic thrust to the music, yet the hardcore isn't compromised, and we all know hardcore is, by definition, an uncompromising form of music. Sure it leans way to the hardcore side - this is metal-influenced hardcore - but that doesn't make it exclusive by any means. Fans of fast, heavy music have got the symptom - the need for good tunes. And Comeback Kid has the cure.

Blood In The Gears

Corazine — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:53:42 GMT

Whiskey raw melodies collide with metal-hardcore aggression and sheer rock musculature. Grooves slam bang across the skull with punishing lack of mercy. Dyanamics slide across the board with mid-tempo chunk riff hitting and thrashy pummeling, just depending on what mood The Showdown is in on any given track. The roaring but comprehensible vocals slide from ubergrit to gritty melodicism. The guitars are an inferno of fast forward lava and the percussion blasts its way across rhythmic diversity that doesn't lose the hooks with the change-ups. "Blood in the Gears" is damn near a description of the remains of the listener in the machine of this music once the CD has stopped playing. Red hot and riveting, The Showdown definitely draw their guns fast and shoot with deadly accuracy.

Nachzerer

Corazine — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:52:20 GMT

Satanic Warmaster returns from the void for "Nachzerer" - dirty grungy sicky sicky sicky shit this. Nasty production, dense with distortion, gruesomely melodic tunes, vicious vocals sure to rip you open from the inside out, churning raging forward motion, crunch and bang, speed and demons and 2+2=666 and all that stuff. Old school black metal summonings from beyond the grave, from beyond Sheol, from beyond Gehenna, from beyond Hell and Tartarus, from beyond the Cthuluan void - this is the deepest realm of Satan's beautiful assful of music. Glass in your pudding, eat it and bleed and die and come back again as a zombie in the Warmaster's horde. Oh fuck right!

Street Dogs

Corazine — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:46:24 GMT

Street Dogs make melodilicious but rocking and punky and OI-filled with some nice Irish punk flavors lashing out in vibrant, vivacious, excited, happy-punchy punk rock rock rock. The energy is endless and the emotiveness is all over the place without sacrificing the requisite testosterone. Street Dogs have definitely found their own flavor of rawk and roll yo, driving grooves, warm guitars and passionate vocals. It's almost - uplifting? Sure, why not? Punk has always been about self-empowerment, so why the fuck not buddy? I don't see why not. You shouldn't see why not, either. In fact, you should see this album. Or hear it. You get the gist.

Devil's Brigade

Corazine — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:37:41 GMT

Devil's Brigade unleashes its self-titled debut. Rancid man Matt Freeman rocks out with the kind of raw but melodicized punk rock raucousness his Rancid-heads have come to expect. Now he's got another outlet to explore his unique brand of punk. Nothing wrong with Rancid, mind you, but it's nice to see his dynamic rock habits take a new tweak. And there's variety galore. The songwriting is textured and frequently surprising with the little jaunts hither and thither it takes on its way to moshing you into a sweating mass of holy fuck. Punk-surf-oi-ska-and-more - the influences range wide and free but all within the umbrella of pure Freeman madness.

http://www.myspace.com/devilsbrigadeofficial

A collapse of Faith

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:06:05 GMT

October Falls is a brilliant example of epic black metal. With three tracks filling up this album, you know a there and back again journey a la black metal is on its way to you. Progressive diversity and time-stretched-out shifts and segues from forward-driven black metal to DSBM ambience and back again (see? back again!) carry the listener across a thick but balanced production of melodic, moody and beautifully abrasive (sandpaper mixed with that which is gorgeous) slab of monolithic black metal. The genre is more and more embracing its art form AS an art form and bands like October Falls get mondo credit for helping that evolution.

Split CD

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:58:41 GMT

These two bands are PERFECTLY matched for this split CD. Each artist definitely brings its own take to the ambient/depressive-suicidal black metal music scheme, but the segue from one band to the next is organic and hypnotically delirious in total execution. These six tracks (three from each) are sure to sink you into a grave of black bliss. Marvelously textured, thick yet wispy, metal yet subdued (as much as black metal is ever subdued), Tenebrae in Perpetuum and Krohm reach out and grab you with big beautiful demon hands sporting diabolical instruments that fire off brain overloading gobs of atmosphere and doom. Dark and gorgeous!!!!!

The Heart of Man

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:52:35 GMT

Hardcore and metal meet up in a melodic slaughterhouse of spirituality via mathy and semi-prog heaviness. Chunky riffs with thoughtful progressions and dark but hopeful expressions of faith all mingle in an aesthetically broad-minded but musically and conceptually focused slab of music that truly makes a journey for the listener. From fast and heavy to slow-chug and heady (and heavy, still), In the Midst of Lions reveals "The Heart of Man" in a metallic chunk of ear-pounding filled in with dashes of hardcore aggression. The sound is fulfilled with the vocal mix - scream and low - and the masterful fretwork and percussive prowess.

Resignaatio

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:40:31 GMT

From bleak ambient metal to noisy mid-tempo black metal of controlled spaz (so it seems), Jumalhämärä sends the listener tripping at this Neurosis vibe meets BM grimness. A truly original act, Jumalhämärä elevates the black metal genre to a new way of viewing progressive metal. It's nothing you can put your finger on; you can but experience it. Epic in ideals and in sound (though sometimes that epicness is contained in a shorter space), "Resignaatio" is thick but not lacking air, ruthless, angry and nihilistic in personality, engaging aesthetically and defiant of strict adherence to the norm. BM ethics within BM ethics. Artfulness and creativity are the bywords on "Resignaatio." Go find out what I mean. Zone and trip your head bone.

Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:13:23 GMT

Encoffination is a malefic behemoth of apocalypse. Doom is coming your way and bringing with it death. All this is a fancy way of saying that "Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh" is a bignasty batch of doom-death metal that runs like a glacier at you, like a serial killer that walks but catches up with you to slaughter you anyway. You're gonna die and it's gonna be slow and painful. The uberdense production adds to the slow grind of big guitars and the buried-deep, super guttural vocals, not to mention the relentless dirge of the percussion. Loaded with mood, no crane could pick up this heavyweight of metal.

Masochist

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:04:57 GMT

Domination Through Impurity dominates through versatile death metal that unleashes its carnage in a variety of tempos and forms of musical aggression, all channeled through able instrumentation and roaring vocal apocalypse. From beat the drums speed hammering to jagged, angular riffage worthy of prog metal to slow groove breakdowns to a helluva lot else within this broad spectrum, Domination Through Impurity ravages the listener in such a way that the subdued eardrums have no idea how their death will hit them next - only that it surely will. Dynamics abound, as does energy and thick aural violence.

Last Station on the Road to Death

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:42:01 GMT

Hell Militia's "Last Station on the Road to Death" indeed captures both the fear and welcome of death. Abrasive and expansive, Hell Militia combines elements of ambient BM, DSBM (depressive suicidal black metal) and good old vintage underground nasty black metal into a big picture (of sound), driven by originality and fierce attitude. The music sweeps easily from one influence to another and frequently finds room for multiple elements all at once. It's a classic yet original affair, stripped down and streamlined yet fully textured and epic in artistic scope. Rounding out the nasty-great-lovely sound are vocals that are somehow familiar yet original. This is black metal that won't offend old schoolers but will satisfy those craving something a bit off the beaten path.

Nihil

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:16:30 GMT

Sick fast drum old schoolish black metal. Gristle in your ears. Blood spews from the side of your head. Gut twisting melodies launch into your cerebellum. Gray matter mush, skull collapses. Voice superrasp scars your skin in its demonic wind. Guitars crank uglypretty melodies. Drums smashsmashsmashsmash plunge ahead. Vintage flavors of black metal still alive in band's today. Bands like Noctis Imperium. On albums like Nihil. Go take the punishment. Thou art commanded to do so.

Kontakt

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:37:28 GMT

"Kontakt" is a fiery frontal assault of headcrushing black metal. Intense and dense and percussively without mercy and boasting ruthless riffage. The withering vocal like an ice blast from the South Pole deepens the welcome pain - welcome by fans of intense, hammering black metal. Solid production values that make all the grit clear enough to hear bring out the instrumental anguish and the eat-your-soul vox. Dark and heavy as hell (what else?), Kommandant is here to take charge and make sure when it's done you're just a blood stain on the concrete.

All Idols Fall Before the Hammer

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:21:38 GMT

The first thing you'll notice about this is the out of whack production. Some crazy producer has decided to turn metal production on its head, going for a deliberately raw sound that strangely enhances the maniac music vomiting out at you from this album. "All Idols Fall Before the Hammer" is some fast, heavy, moody death metal with tons of grindy influences. The low vocals are placed down in the mix, sort of wafting up at you from the abyss-y depths. In the middle you'll find the guitars and such. On top you'll find the hollowed out but hard hitting drums (it reminds me of the way people bitched about the drums on Metallica's "St. Anger," which [a] I liked and [b] were supposed to be raw). It brings a lean, underground/indie flavor on purpose to an underground/indie band when many bands under the mainstream radar try so hard for excess polish. It's refreshing to hear a metal band embrace the rawness of its sound and turn up that rawness through gritty production. It's a unique sound that sets the band apart from its peers.

When Above ...

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:09:41 GMT

Wolfshade is another of the nu wave of black metal bands staying true to the spirit of the genre while trekking into new directions. An expansive sound immediately wraps itself around you. You enter a new world, one that is grim and dark but also gorgeous and shifting, ephemeral yet substantial. "When Above..." can hit fast and hard but it can also move across the soundscape in a variety of manners, both quiet and ambient and full-bodied and slowly aggressive. The prettiness of the music is always present, regardless of what particular tack the band is taking at any given moment. Epic and progressive, Wolfshade is working hard to elevate the genre to new heights.

Raven God Amongst Us

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:03:57 GMT

Speedy and heavy and vicious is the Raven God Amongst Us. Crisp production but deliberate black metal dirtiness. Ugly to the soul and beautiful like Lucifer, Valdur's album is a full frontal attack of spirit crushing BM killingness. Laden with atmosphere - especially during the interludey parts between the blasting assaults of sheery black metalness - no one can doubt Valdur's allegiance to all things dark and dreadful. Genre fans will find devilish delight in this crushing, falling slab of metallic hell. It's a steamroller, a grisly grimoire of musical tyranny.

Unbekanntes Album

Corazine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:57:20 GMT

I know wordless rock-n-roll isn't for everyone's tastes, but even non-fans of instrumental rock should take an audio gander at this. Frames displays incredible amounts of diversity and progressive influence without the inaccessibility of uber prog. Lush and melodically enveloping, "Unbekanntes" covers a spectrum of pop and rock flavors. Gentle melodicism gives way to rock riffs and back again. Instrumental prowess and musical variety, backed by smart originality and sharp production values, makes Frames the purveyor of one of the year's more original releases so far. Frames is Frames and pigeonholing this band is as difficult as it is unnecessary. Need I say more?

A Feast for Crows

Corazine — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:23:33 GMT

Melodic but intense metal is the mission statement of Corpus Christi on "A Feast for Crows," an album that blazes and sizzles and swirls with dynamics, shifting and changing but never losing focus. Hints of sublimated progressive thinking on sleek shots of high octane metal make your ears beautiful while they bleed. Switches between vicious vocals and sung vocals bring additional dimension to music that is already diversified yet streamlined. Even more depth rears its head through the particular manifestation of the emotions afoot here. Anger is a staple of much metal, but righteous anger that comes through not as unchecked violent pissed-offness but rather through a focused sense of justice and spirituality brings even more layers to the table for this excellent offering from Victory Metal.

New Blood

Corazine — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:12:42 GMT

The Other's "New Blood" will feel like a today take on an 80s underground revival. First off, it has to be said, comparison fair or unfair, that this will appeal to fans of The Misfits (unless they're the sort of fans that write off any similar horror punk as rip off but just ignore those words). Elvis operatic vocals churn out all kinds of horror themed madness for the masses (or at least the masses of folks who dig this kinda thing) while the music is melodic but headstrong and nicely goth tuned. The twist here is that the production is in high gear, solid and clear, and there's a metallic semi thrashy edge that keeps the music with an extra drive forward. So horror punk AND horror metal fans can set in to some rejoicing. Go zombies go!