Castle Freak - Human Hive - 5 Track E.P - To be self-released 18th March 2016

Castle Freak

Human Hive

5 Track E.P

To be Self-Released 18^th March 2016

Written for Ramzine

Castle Freak – Unknown parts of Philadelphia/Pennsylvania

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/CastleFreak

Genre: Gore Obsessed Death Metal/Grind Core

It has always been a pleasure to review Grind Core. The gory album covers, the fast mix of death metal, punk and grind elements and of course the lyrics that wage war on the ears are all things that make me smile, and this EP is no exception to the rule.

It’s quite old school so you know what you are going to get with mainly fast paced guttural growls and rip roaring aggressive screams that follow a certain crust positive sound.

The angry and violent mutations allow for the listener to offload their bad feelings for the day and thus making for a peaceful life as one can return to smiling after listening to the bands frightful congealing mass of modern day heavy style.

The sampled voices ease you into the tracks like witches throwing their pray in crusty cauldrons of sulphuric acid!! But that is how it is supposed to sound it is Grind after all? There is nothing ‘nicey nicey’ here, unless, if you are like me and enjoy the torturous aggression in music form and all that goes with it, then it can be somewhat relaxing! Yes you heard right!

Of course it can be shocking too! To see human entrails covered in blood and gore on an album cover, but at least the bands who wallow in this void of human waste are not trying to hide anything and give you what your heart desires!

For me it isn’t about the blood and guts so much as the ferocity of the music that diminishes a ‘bad day blues’ “put some of this on and feel your cares melt away!” Did I tell you I am weird? But I make no excuses for it!

Grind Core is such an acquired taste, I didn’t say refined, because it isn’t! It just spells out total and utter madness, and seen live you can bet you will never want to go back to listening to mainstream, that’s for sure!

The war and gore themes are apt and in keeping with their genre and play out like a black death comedy – well to the few who don’t appreciate Grind Core, I suppose it must feel like that, but there is always a place for new and interesting genres and for me Death/Grind ticks all the boxes for being the most gruelling and gruesome of all.

I just love Grind Core!

9.5/10

Track List:

Boneyard (Impetigo Cover)

Human Hive

Matul

Sickening Corpses

Toxic Winds

Members:

Gigan - Guitar/Vocals

Zak - Guitar

Ben - Bass/Vocals

Sebastian -Drums

Brimstone Coven - Black Magic - 10 Track Album - Metal Blade Records - Released 29th January 2016

Brimstone Coven

Black Magic

10 Track Album

Metal Blade Records

Released 29^th January 2016

Written for Ramzine

Brimstone Coven – Wheeling, West Virginia

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/brimstonecoven

Listen here:

https://brimstonecoven.bandcamp.com/album/black-magic

Genre: Dark Occult Rock

Pic by Ken Trousdell Photography

Moving on to stoner, doom with a hint of hard rock things just got serious! The sounds created by Brimstone Coven are nothing short of awe striking! Despite pulling in from the past, riffs from Sabbath and even sounding slightly Zeppelin in places, the band have managed to ingeniously stamp their mark on to the proceedings in such a clever and creative way.

The gigantic flanks of metal carve their way into your soul and the body must respond to the bands calling. It is keen to infect with its rousing riffs and heavy stance that simply locks horns with the ears.

The hungry rhythms shoot out in quick succession and blend magically with a superb vocal by “Big John” Williams and it doesn’t end there as the sound barrier is shattered with edgy bass, heavy guitar and thunderous drumming prowess.

It is spirit lifting and stalks the senses into submission, with catchy hooks and underlying dark beats that ravage with an instinctive violation that churns up the emotions.

There is certainly a lot going on within each track that sends a fiery and contagious contrast of metal, rock and stoner into orbit, mixing them together and making them work on so many harmonious levels.

It is one rich album that delivers a resounding concoction of slow and fast pace, atmospheric, rock, metal and stoner doom, that there are plenty of moments to suit your mood.

From the slow paced ‘As we Fall’ faster paced ‘Slow Death’ you can bet that each track on this superb ten track album will have you salivating at the abundance of truly stunning and raw moments contained within it.

The emotional track ‘The Seers’ gives us a fleeting glimpse of the past as early Sabbath once took to the stage. It delivers in Sabbathesque style, so much so that you can almost hear Sabbath playing this track from one of their earlier albums – It’s uncanny!

‘The Plague’ could be likened to an early Led Zeppelin with beautiful crisp guitar strings and harmonious vocal. There are many, many awe-inspiring moments on this album it is hard to choose a favourite track.

It is quite an unpredictable album that takes on varying paths and then veers in another direction. It is seriously dramatic and will no doubt keep an audience amused for hours with a beautiful twist of diversity and creativity.

Their energy is stark reality!

10/10

Track List:

Black Magic

Black Unicorn

Beyond the Astral

As we Fall

Upon the Mountain

Slow Death

The Seers

The Plague

Forsaken

The Eldest Tree

Members:

"Big John" Williams - Vocals

Corey Roth - Guitar

Andrew D'Cagna - Bass

Justin Wood - Drums

Catarrhal - Fleshgrave - 10 Track Album - Plus 5 Bonus Tracks - Great Dane Records - Released 30th April 2013

Catarrhal

Fleshgrave

10 Track Album

Plus 5 bonus tracks

Great Dane Records

Released 30^th April 2013

Catarrhal – Huy - Liège

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/catarrhal

Genre: Death Metal

Possession

This track literally lulls you into a false sense of security as it builds up to its grand opening.

Funeral Larva

The second track shows no messing about and goes straight in for the kill, with some really ‘in your face’ vocals – that are so forthright they hit the gut when listening. The powerful music rips through the speakers as if it is showing you the middle finger!

Impious Fog

With some thunderous beats the drums launch into their tirade of utter outstanding energy, while the riffs protrude and bulge with high octane fuelled aggression. The vocal depths are way beyond deep and stir up some powerful emotions.

Fleshgate

Offering a more melodic phrase this track has an entrancing effect and sooner than later it once more hits the impressive elements that send the blood coursing through the veins.

Dressed in Blood and Puke

A very familiar title for a death metal track – it goes with the territory. Pummelling beats are potent and quickly followed by some angry lyrics that hit so low they leave a rumbling in the stomach and paralyze the ears.

Disinter

Catarrhal, I feel are a band that know no limits and keep on biting at the bit and this track is no different. It surges ahead with predatory riffs and catchy blast beats. The sonic frequencies are just phenomenal as the energy is simply catapulted through the speakers along with a strong vocal extract of extra viciousness!

Morbid Exhalation

The titles that death metal bands come up with have always fascinated me – call it morbid curiosity lol! The brutal onslaught has already reached fever pitch as they slam out riffs to literally die for in true death metal fashion.

Into the arms of light

The next track possesses a keen heaviness that resonates fiercely. Spawned with utter hate its attention seeking encounter is monstrous and simmers with equal ferocity.

Crimson Rapture

Still no let up, Catarrhal really know how to keep one entertained. The intensity increases and notches up a vehement rousing that antagonises the ears and vigorously shakes the senses with sheer and utter exuberance. The melodic slabs of rhythms are exciting and great head banging moments can be had with this track!

Outrenoir

The end has been reached and as a finale the band have plumbed for a sinister and inflamed passage that ignites further on. From catchy heavy rhythms to totally deranged vocals it leads the way for a thoroughly orgasmic encounter.

Bonus Tracks

Of Heads and Catapults

Again a good solid title for an equally solid track that scours the dark depravity of the mind. It savagely executes its wild side and seeks revenge on the ears make no mistake!

Vomited Souls

The jagged rhythms cut like a new carving knife and are carnivorously raw and unyielding. It smacks a punch that nobody could recover from. Vocally engaging with its heavy tones and rippling rhythms it is feisty enough to kill.

Dreams of Gatling Carnage

With a gargle blasting vocal to open the track, you know immediately what you are in for and Catarrhal deliver the goods with distinct sound velocity and major imagination. Virulence inducing, lip-smacking awesomeness! This is one track you won’t want to bypass.

Stitched Lips and Brutal Sodomy

What strange images are pushed into the mind when reading the title of this one! It is again brutal with plenty of savage intentions offering a truly mesmeric undercurrent that surges with every rousing riff. It stirs emotions far and wide.

Necroleader

Let the brutality commence – enveloping the ears as well as the sound barrier, maybe I should turn it down a notch? The closing track to this magnificent CD and already I am hungry for more.

Summary

This is one superb CD that not only engages but is thoroughly addictive and offers melodic traits of catchiness as well as a brutal overload of anger and emotive force.

The grouchy vocals are scathing and show no signs of weakness as they explore their tracks with quite simply a cauldron of molten metal. It engages on all levels of ravaging the senses and pummels its way through 15 hard core tracks that are persistently infectious.

Although some of the tracks sound similar in delivery, the production is strong and arouse with thrilling imagination.

10 tracks plus is just the ticket, that will leave you hungry for more, providing you like your metal extreme!

All hail Catarrhal!!

9.5/10

Track List:

Possession

Funeral Larva

Impious Fog

Fleshgate

Dressed in Blood and Puke

Disinter

Morbid Exhalation

Into the arms of light

Crimson Rapture

Outrenoir

Bonus Tracks from:

Beyond Onirism demo

Of Heads and Catapults

Vomited Souls

Dreams of Gatling Carnage

Stitched Lips and Brutal Sodomy

Necroleader

Members:

Stefan - Guitar

Xavier - Guitar

Rebhell - Drums

Romain - Bass

Serge - Vocals

Death Control - 4 Track E.P - Great Dane Records - Released 1st September 2015

Death Control

4 Track E.P

Great Dane Records

Released 1^st September 2015

Death Control – Lille, France

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/deathcontrolband

Listen here:

https://deathcontrol.bandcamp.com

All songs written by Chris Dufour and his son Killian

Lyrics and arrangement by Death Control

Recorded by Chris Dufour

Mixed at HDD Records by David Herreman and Geoff (Great Dane Records)

Mastered by David Herreman

Cover by J Deth

Genre: Death Trash Metal

Biography:

“DEATH CONTROL was formed in September 2013 by Christophe Dufour ex bassist of Disgust. After several years’ experience using different styles and a break of three years, he had the desire to compose his own compositions in a style like TRASH-DEATH. The challenge was to find the appropriate musicians for the job.

Surrounded by Farid (solo guitar) and Peter (drums), both playing in the HAST group and Steeve (singer) and Olive (Bassist) after only a few rehearsals, this choice was confirmed. In October 2014 their first gig opened with NATRON and made a very good impression with the public in Lille. After a few months DEATH CONTROL recorded their first E.P (drums were recorded in LB Lab in 2014.) Guitars and bass have been done by Christophe Dufour himself.  For the mixing and mastering, they called in David Herreman former singer and Krhomadeath - Geoffrey Buyens ex Disgust guitarist and co-founder of the GREAT DANE RECORD label in their Studio HDD Records. The E.P was released on 1 September 2015. The group currently have 9 tracks and plan to play some dates to promote the E.P before returning to the studio in 2016!”

The Beast – No messing about the familiar sound of sampled voice looms largely into the speakers and winds its way unmercifully to the ears. The sharp tones scream feistily through an abundance of kick beats that glaze over a savage melting pot of metal riffs. There is also incorporated into their savagery a hard core melodic quality with addictive hooks that are impossible to fathom in this melee of rhythms.

Absurd Massacre – Carrying on through their malignant haze of rhythms this track bites furiously at the ears and pummels with sheer emotion. It throws itself whole hearted into its rapacious unruly and obnoxious toxic riffs and rouses with utter virulence, but not forgetting its melodic encounter making it one feisty track indeed.

Groovy Cadaver – This track edges its way forward and does it with deliberation. It reaches its climax soon after and goes all-out for the kill. The seething vocal offerings are increasingly torrid and fiery, leaving nothing to the over indulgent imagination.

Satisfy your Urges – Always the same with E.P’s of only four tracks, no sooner do you get into them and start feeling the momentum build they are over. However this track perpetually creates havoc and delivers with a full on potent frenzy! Yes my urges are now well and truly satisfied!

Summary

This is one superb E.P despite its brief outing into the world of metal. It savagely attacks the aural and leaves the owner fighting for breath. It never lets up for a second. It’s striking, bold and utterly menacing, unleashing a welcoming assault that shows itself to be maniacal, with robust attitude that goes on killing until it ends.

Death Control does what it says and in no uncertain terms – this is one E.P that will excite the extremities and then some!

10/10

Track List:

The Beast

Absurd Massacre

Groovy Cadaver

Satisfy your Urges

Members:

Steev – Vocals

Chris – Guitar

Farid – Guitar

Oliv – Bass

Pierre - Drums

Post-Mortem - God with Horns - 9 Track Album - Great Dane Records - Released February 2016

Post-Mortem

God with Horns

9 Track Album

Great Dane Records

Released February 2016

Post Mortem – Mulhouse, France

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/postmortem

Genre: Death Metal

Biography:

“Post-Mortem was founded in Alsace in 1995 by Fabrizio, Sam and Lawrence. After several changes, the line-up stabilized in March 1999 with the arrival of Jack on guitar and Manu behind the vocals.

Their practiced style, was a melodic death thrash with various influences (Paradise Lost - Dark Tranquillity - Amorphis) and it was in this musical direction came 1st MCD Group in March 2000 "Mystic Delights" or mingle great rhythmic, melodies, guttural voice, clear voice, violin keys and keyboards.

Summer 2001 Post-Mortem returned to the studio to record their 2nd MCD "Mankind Autopsy" in a brutal US death style and more in keeping, having its influences: Dying Fetus - Cannibal Corpse - Cryptopsy - Six Feet Under as well as hard core contributions (Nostromo - Pantera) or thrash (Slayer)

Critics and chronicles received for the second MCD were very encouraging and Post Mortem contributed to many concerts in France and abroad seeking to make themselves known and playing to the maximum.

In 2004, Manu left the band and was replaced by Sylvain, sees in parallel Jack and Sam joined the ranks of Karelia but a while later the group was finally put to sleep, unable to bear the many other activities of band members ... until early 2012 or inhabited by the lack of metallic fury Manu, Sam, Laurent and Fabrice decided once and for all to put things back together and became motivated more than ever to the idea of ​​sharing this brutal music to the masses!”

Intro (Beyond the Void) amid the sampled voice comes a very sophisticated and melodic stream of satisfying creativity, housing harmonious vocals and urgent explorations.

Spine Trophy – kicks it up a notch and here you actually sample the vocal hard edged deep growls that sit on a thick bed of rampant riffs and volatile beats. The good thing is that the track never loses its melodic leaning and gives your head something to bang to.

Rules of Death – bursts into a tempestuous riff guided by blast beats and perpetual motion that demands attention. The hearty vocal offerings are accompanied by a clean urgent vocal adding depth to an already deep track.

Eat the Cadaver – This is a lot heavier in delivery than the previous track, engaging on a feisty level, with stops and starts but quickly finds its momentum and savagely attacks the ears with brutal embellishment.

Industrial Aborting Process – Is a lot more precise as the weaving twists burn savagely and accompanied by a harsh and unrelenting vocal edge. The virulence protrudes and offers a slick malevolence that in turn gives us an encouraging melodic pattern of rhythms.

The God with Horns – The bands title track is calm and deliberate as it sweeps to greater heights until it builds into one of fire and brimstone. You can almost picture the scene of a horned God. It picks up pace and launches with savage effect and pulverises the ears with a malignant swipe of drums.

Void Millennium Genesis – again a swagger of rhythms sweep through the speakers and engage on a dark octane level. Creating an intriguing tangle of obnoxious toxicity with plenty of bad ass attitude.

Outro (Coming War) – The tingles of the final track edge their way down your spine in this anxious blend of beats that sound like marching feet. Building slowly and menacingly into view until all that is left are visions.

Bonus Track – Umbilical Strangulation – as expected from its un-forbidding title it is grisly, gruesome and full of complex traits that set the pulse racing for head banging uncontrollably.

Summary:

The album is one crazy manifestation of gargling vocal and unrelenting blast beats that kick up a storm so heavy that it leaves a haze of dust in its wake!

Flavoured with good strong melodic traits that are very involved and make for a contagious listen.

The final steps of the last track are unsurprisingly in French and so to the average Brit totally unintelligible unless you know a lot of the lingo, but that is the beauty of death metal most of the vocals are unintelligible so it relies heavily on the music to carry it, so you don’t even need to know what the words are outlining.

The snarling gargling vocals are in keeping with the malignant core of the tracks and further still the rapacious flurry of rhythms attack aggressively, leaving an inspiring flourish epitomising the rapid growth of Post Mortem.

9/10

Track List:

Intro (Beyond the Void)

Spine Trophy

Rules of Death

Eat the Cadaver

Industrial Aborting Process

The God with Horns

Void Millennium Genesis

Outro (Coming War)

Bonus Track:

Umbilical Strangulation

Members:

Dahu Grogneur - Vocals

Sam – Guitar

Laurent – Drums

Pierre - Bass

Gaetan – Lead Guitar

Roadhog - The Fleece - Ashton in Makerfield - 19th February 2016

Roadhog

The Fleece

Ashton in Makerfield

19^th February 2016

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? Well that’s what happened for the legends Roadhog, when they attended The Fleece. Wall to wall friends and family arrived to support them and what a difference it made!

Although the band always go that extra mile to connect with their audiences, last Friday the band didn’t have to try too hard, because the audience were with them, supporting and providing a lot of banter, sending vocalist Graham Lee into overdrive.

The Fleece is an established rock pub in Ashton and frequented by rockers, who enjoy seeing bands play on Friday nights.

As it is in the heart of Ashton and sits in the suburbs the bands play until around midnight and then there is a curfew enforced so as not to upset the surrounding neighbour's with noise levels, although I think they should actually join in and enjoy the music! The drinks were a bit less than good, in fact they weren’t up to scratch, but we put it down to the changeover as Yvonne has now left, but this did not stop people’s enjoyment, it just meant that there were more than a few thirsty people in the crowd.

Roadhog delivered a high powered set, although their second set is always a lot heavier than the first, and carried it out to crowd satisfaction.

Like with a lot of places the lights seem either too bright or too dark, The Fleece was quite dark so taking pictures can sometimes be awkward, and the route to the toilets lay right across the band’s path which is annoying when trying to take photos and or videos, but being wall to wall that was bound to happen anyway.

Barry’s drum kit took up most of the stage and together Roadhog utilised every inch of the stage.

The band were relaxed although they never deviated from their two hour and fifteen minute set, putting their all into making it a night to remember.

The band kicked out some thunderous tunes in the second set like Y&T’s ‘Forever’ and it resonated around the Fleece, with the audience lapping it up!

‘Warpigs’ has again made a comeback and they stormed it! Altogether it was one extremely enjoyable set leaving no-one in any doubt that Roadhog are now on top form.

Kev did his merry little jaunt into the crowd and narrowly missed having his hat removed by a punter who shall remain nameless, Neil’s face contorted with every groove, Oggy’s banter just got wilder and Barry’s drumming always hit a high note - the band were simply on fire!

~~~~~~

Special Thanks to Jane Craig for the loan of her camera, and to the staff at The Fleece, Ian Glover for keeping me amused on Facebook and allowing me to meet him at the Fleece :D Raymondo Wong, for his unexpected arrival to support Roadhog, Jeff Hayes and his son Lee for the laughs and the chat, Claire and Big John, love you guys! Paul Melling and his mate for also turning up to show support, Ian Morris for the interesting chats, Gary Humphrey, and Pauline Winstanley, whom I never got to meet along with Neil Ashcroft – maybe next gig! And of course to Roadhog for yet another brilliant night!