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Last Bastion (U.S.) The Drip (U.S.) Wan (Sweden) Sinaya (Brazil) Battleroar (Greece/Germany) Lie in Ruins (Finland)

and Gravehill (U.S.) Hour of Penance (Italy) Insain (France) UnKured (U.S.) Unisonic Schammasch (Switzerland) Bifröst (Austria) Nux Vomica (U.S.) Cultfinder (U.K.)

# 44 Washington state, U.S. www.metalbulletin.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/pages/The-Metal-Bulletin-paper-zine

www.fuglymaniacs.com (zine issues online, concert videos, interviews, reviews) history of Metal Bulletin Zine #1-20: (2006-2009): Wisconsin #21-26: (2009-2010): Texas #27(2010)-- now; Washington state

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metal on the radio/internet (all times are Pacific Time) Metal Shop (Seattle, WA): Saturday 11pm-3am KISW 99.9fm www.kisw.com Sweet Nightmares (Houston, TX): Thursday night 9pm-12am KPFT 90.1 fm www.kpft.org Excuse All the Blood (Olympia, WA): Friday night 11pm-1am www.kaosradio.org — Last Bastion: The Road to Redemption The state of Washington has power metal, too. The power metal audience should be on the lookout for Last Bastion, who recently, back in April, released the album called "The Road to Redemption." I’ve heard only one song and some samples of the other tracks. Sounds like good stuff. Here’s a bit more about the album: 1. I Know When I'm Home 04:45 2. Ancient Lands 07:46 3. Plataea 06:45 4. Northern Kingdom 04:23 5. Angel's Tyranny 06:40 6. Road to Redemption 08:03 7. The Way of Kings Pt I: Cursed by Fate 03:58 8. The Way of Kings Pt II: Stormblessed 03:24 9. Liberation 04:15 10. Forevermore 06:35 TOTAL: 56:34 www.facebook.com/lastbastionpowermetal www.lastbastionofficial.com The Drip: A Presentation of Gruesome Poetics (Relapse) Here’s another band from the state of Washington!!

There’s more to the state of Washington than certain bands that are famous for spitting on each other on stage, in far, far away places like Brazil. The Drip deserves more coverage because in addition to not being famous for assaulting each other, The Drip is also not famous for committing suicide. In fact, of the four people in The Drip, not one of them has ever committed suicide successfully. The EP is 6 songs. If you are mad, mad, mad lunatically into Nasum, Insect Warfare and the local grind band in your town, and you want more grind, then The Drip is for you.

It’s time for me to learn more about the other two EPs that this band has. This is their third, actually, so I’ve got some work to do. www.thedrip.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/thedripgrind Wan (Sweden): Enjoy the Filth (Carnal Records) In 2010 Wan had a grim black metal album called

metal-to-the-bone primal recording. Now they have a second title out to reaffirm their loyalty as defenders of the old metal standard. If anything, one thing is even clearer now: Wan is more in-your-face and horrid. Whereas before Wan gave the impression of early 90s black metal totalitarians, now Wan is slimier, dirtier.

These roughnecks seek metalheads into classic Motorhead and Venom, Hellhammer and 80s Bathory, the punk of The Exploited and Discharge, the gutter metal of Autopsy, and of course, early 90s black metal from Norway and Sweden. Whether it’s 80s thrash or old death metal or ugly black metal, Wan searches for the audience with certain curmudgeon qualities, not necessarily the easy-going, not the go-the-flow, not the I-find-something-positive-in-every-genre attitude. Wan does not play nice. Wan does not get along with “everybody.” I am confident that if the jukebox at the bar plays In Flames or Killswitch Engage, these curmudgeons will pick up the jukebox and throw it out the window. When they walk the streets they make angry faces when they see people wearing Trivium shirts. They are cantankerous petulants. They’ll show you when you meet them. Enjoy the filth. It’s an album title and an announcement for those that like their metal this way, rough around the edges, upfront, direct; roughneck metal, or “pentagram rockers,” as the band says. Wan’s music is incapable of leaving the gutter; it cannot, must not come to the light of respectability. Let it be mocked and dismissed. Let it be called garbage. Wan relishes all that. Wan resides in the places where the stink is so bad as to keep away those without the desire for this type of metal. Wan rumbles between slime-covered crust punk, cave black metal and obnoxious dumpster thrash, with a purposeful dirty 80s sound that is not far from early Venom, but definitely not as garage as the homemade Hellhammer and Death demos. This album is no accident, this music is not the result of “youthful ignorance,” and they are not ashamed or embarrassed of their music. This is not going to get more “sophisticated” in the future, either. They want it like this. Maybe you do, too? www.facebook.com/TheUnholyWAN www.reverbnation.com/theunholywan Sinaya (Brazil): Obscure Raids I just found out about Sinaya very recently. Fortunately, the EP’s four songs can be heard at the link below. Sinaya’s upfront thrash/death shows a solid level of energy, the attitude/intention is great, and the sound is solid. Sinaya wants you to mosh, pure and simple. Whether you prefer thrash or death metal, Sinaya brings a bit of both. The most, most, most important point: Sinaya’s excitement for metal gets across to the

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Reportedly, this is the debut EP, and they’ve been around only a few years. Here’s hoping we hear more soon from Sinaya. Email: sinaya@gmail.com www.reverbnation.com/sinayametal

Battleroar: Blood of Legends (Cruz del Sur Music) Battleroar (Greece/Germany) manages a balance between traditional heavy metal and traditional epic doom metal, which is to say, to rock with a melancholic edge. It would not be so far off to call it “epic heavy metal of doom” with expertise in the department of songwriting; much care to guitar playing, to the singing and to the melodies. Consequently, the quality of the music is very impressive.

The guitar work shows an effort to deliver shredding, hard-hitting riffs, melodic hooks and energies that the metal audience easily recognizes. The band speaks fluently the language of metal and communicates the tradition of metal, from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the melancholy of traditional doom, the crunch of current traditional heavy metal, with a nod to more intense forms of metal, like thrash. One interesting detail: Battleroar has a substantial use of the violin. The results are effective: “Valkyries above Us,” for instance, reaches for symphonic doom and melody. The violin contribution to this album is essential, given the features, moods and layers added through said instrument.

The singing of Mr. Gerrit Mutz, he of Sacred Steel renown, seamlessly weaves in and out of various moods, coherently bringing to bear the wherewithal at his disposal: the metal-headbanging singing, the voices of the melancholic soul and intensity of a semi-death metal growl, the grit and the melody, the glory and doom. Musically, Battleroar sounds very, very different from the leather-and-spikes metal of Sacred Steel; this is more atmospheric and melodic. The singing is also substantially distinct, less aggressive and more multidimensional, more expressive, which is a big credit to Mr. Mutz for putting so much care and personality into Battleroar. To end: highly recommended for those into traditional heavy metal looking for shredding, melody and quality, as well as a bit of a unique take on epic metal with power and doom elements. www.facebook.com/BattleroaR Lie in Ruins (Finland): “Towards Divine Death” (Dark Descend Records). Whether your allegiances are with Incantation or your compass rides for TexasDM like Blaspherian and Imprecation or perhaps you have in the horizon Lantern, Vorum and Krypts (all three from Finland, too), the witching hour has arrived again with Lie in Ruins. All

or “evil” or “blasphemous” death metal. Therefore, if you tilt your pentagrams in this direction, and you have not heard Lie in Ruins, this album will lash well with those other bands.

The overall atmosphere is blasphemous death metal heaviness of doom. The guitar work, while thick as a brick, appeals for its direct, forward motion. Like Blaspherian or Incantation, Lie in Ruins can play as fast and last as any gravedigger, but they do more: they also work on the atmosphere, on the doom.

As is customary with this style, the ugly production is often the reason why these bands undead for the “sinister” sounds. Don’t skip on this band, or you’ll be the one to sing the blues for missing out. Horns up, way up. www.facebook.com/lieinruins Gravehill: Death Curse (Dark Descent Records) The way that I like to think of crud death metallers Gravehill is a bunch of old California thrashers who grew up on Metallica, Exodus and Slayer and all those bands, but with the heaviness and vocals of death metal. I hear a whole lot of psychopath Paul Baloff-era Exodus in the music of Gravehill. It is also possible that I am a wingnut, but my ears are telling me that the album “Bonded by Blood” is in the DNA of this band, or at least, in the fundamentals of this new album “Death Curse.”

First of all, the vocalist Mike “I’m not ok” Abominator channels the spirit of dirtnapper Paul Baloff in several ways: screwloose and a bit too much like a real-life deviant-psycho. He sounds as if he has eaten the microphone and is gurgling the mic in his throat. What does this man have in his throat, a frog, broken glass? He growls from the belly and it sounds like it. There is a lot of old heavy metal and thrash in those guitar solos. The tone is death metal, the first impression is death metal, the vibe is death metal, but the result is a death metal that is very ear-friendly, thrashy, classic-style. Gravehill sounds like those old slimeball bands that sounded like death, thrash and black all rolled into one in the 80s. Mainly, if you wreck your neck to old, classic metal in the

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Area/California thrash, German and Brazilian chaotic thrash/death, this should appeal to you in the low-life Gravehill style. This is too loud for the crowd, and I almost can’t stand it myself, but all my snakes in the kitchen like it so much, oh, well, let Gravehill show you the metal they got. www.facebook.com/gravehill Hour of Penance (Italy): “Regicide” (Prosthetic Rec.) I sometimes get the impression that whenever a metal band is the object of praise, some attitudes often react with cynicism because some listeners really do perceive themselves as standing apart from what they reject (“mainstream” music culture, including metal, for example), as a means to express a self-assigned mark of so-called uniqueness, oftentimes displaying an unnecessarily excessive pessimism, just to go against the grain.

A case in point is Hour of Penance. Dismissive views have labeled the band a blasting one-trick pony or a Behemoth clone. Sometimes, more favorable reviews highlight the speed, saying that it is fast, intense, so on and so forth, which can also be a polite way of saying that it is a mediocre band with somewhat repetitive songs. In other words, a person says that the band is fast or heavy, as if that really means something in technical death metal; however, fast and heavy, in a “techdeath” context, is like saying that ice is cold. My own experience listening to this album was interesting from the beginning: the blasting “technical/brutal death metal” of Hour of Penance made sense on the first listen.

The drumming caught my attention, in part,

because it’s easy for a listener to connect with a beat. Hour of Penance is not the “fastest” ever, although it is assuredly a blasting album. As I already knew what to expect in terms of speed, what caught my attention was not the blasting. What caught my attention is something else that the drummer is doing: in between

spaces at this warp-speed drumming; in the interstices of the frenzy, there are lots of small details that somehow add up to give the album a creative, a distinctive face from other “technical/brutal” blasting albums.

Second, the guitar work is a balance between tendonitis-inducing wizardry and memorable hooks, done at a blasting pace, of course. I like the fact that I can hear the riffs and that it is not simply chugging away with play-on chords. The guitar work is an attractive proposition for the listener wanting to hear the guitar, while still hoping for technical/fast playing. It does not go totally over your head, but it is undoubtedly on the shredding side of death metal; the equilibrium between speed, chaos, absurdity and a bit of melody works well for the band. The elements—the drumming, guitars and the growling—make up complete songs, compositions that the willing listener can consolidate in her or his mind with the feeling that the music may be talented, fast or extreme, but at bottom, it’s a fun listen. It seems to me that these compositions have the key components that the listener partial to “modern/extreme death metal” will approve in a big way, as there is here much to enjoy. www.hourofpenance.net www.facebook.com/hourofpenance Insain: Enlightening the Unknown (Kaotoxin Records) It’s not entirely clear whether the band is now broken up or not, but if so, as a parting statement, they leave behind this 2013-recorded EP. Hyperfrenzied blasting in the crazed-cyborg way, Insain (France) functions as a death metal bulldozer of “brutality” and “blasting” in the way that Origin is a death metal wrecking ball of intensity. Insain might as well be a “baby Origin,” but that’s not a bad thing, if you are into the style. Insain overwhelms the ears with nonstop low guttural growling, some shouting, blasting and a sharknado of heavy riffing to make you dizzy. Did they break up just when things were starting to get good?! www.facebook.com/insaindeath UnKured (U.S.): As Reality Melts There’s something about UnKured that makes the music very likable. It could be just my own imagination, but UnKured sounds like a critique of “modern metal” so infested with chugga-chugga, hardcore-diseased, lazy-guitar low-string knuckledragging plucking that passes for “riffs” and that stupid “macho man” angry-guy-down-street yelling-style vocals, not to mention the hipster or shopping-mall radio aggro/angry-rock posturing. So, how is UnKured a critique? The shredding, for one thing. This band has worked on creating real riffs in

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old-style thrash/death Terrible-Certainty-era-Kreator-like vocals, within a bass-and-guitar friendly context.

UnKured is into doing these cool guitar solos that show that they have spent time practicing the guitar. Hey, I notice these things! Into shredding thrash/death? Do you have an interest in a band from Cincinnati, Ohio that’s been at it stubbornly for several years? www.facebook.com/pages/UnKured-Band/127769993918598 Unisonic: For the Kingdom (Armoury Records) Things seem to be going well for Unisonic, known to the metal audience for featuring two former Helloween alumni, guitarist Kai Hansen and singer Michael Kiske. In fact, the band’s sophomore outing, “Light of Dawn,” will be available in August. So, to get the public in shape, here is the EP. Two new songs: 1."For The Kingdom" - 4:58 2."You Come Undone" (EP exclusive song) - 3:48 Plus: four live recordings from Masters of Rock Festival in the Czech Republic 2012. 3."Unisonic" (live) - 6:00 4."Never Too Late" (live) - 4:36 5."Star Rider" (live) - 4:07 6."Souls Alive" (live) - 5:53

The two new songs are upbeat rockers, well in

line with the Unisonic narrative established so far: quality and talent on all fronts, and very memorable. In terms of the live songs, the material sounds as the listener would expect, and it appears that the band is having fun. It’s always nice to hear Mr. Kiske rocking again, and if Kai Hansen is involved, then lots of heavy/power metal supporters will naturally be interested. Here’s hoping we all hear the new studio album soon. www.unisonic.org www.facebook.com/unisonicofficial Schammasch (Switzerland): Contradiction (Prosthetic)

the album “Contradiction” by Schammasch, a group characterized by a grand-narrative approach to aesthetics. The vision found on the recording returns time and again to the execution: maximize the band’s strengths. The question then becomes: what are the band’s strongest points? Schammasch rejects the hobby mentality of a group getting together, having some drinks, and jamming out some tunes just for fun and giggles, to have something to do when they are bored on the weekends. Epic greatness is their objective. If forced to reduce the sound to a sentence: Schammasch is midtempo, chugging, “cold,” post-black metal with slow passages and some bursts of speed here and there. I have listened to the album many times and it is a time-consuming two-part project. Part 1 is five songs, for a total time of 38 minutes; part 2 is four songs, for a total time of 46 minutes. Undoubtedly, they want to create music that stands above normal, by-the-numbers metal. Therefore, look into this album if chugging, cold, semi-industrial-like, groove-oriented “black metal” appeals to you, or if you tend to investigate bands that make long albums that require attentive listeners and much time. www.schammasch.bandcamp.com www.schammasch.com www.facebook.com/SCHAMMASCH Bifröst: Tor in eine neue Welt (Einheit Produktionen) This “pagan folk” metal works well as Oktoberfest music, in October or whenever. These Austrian beer-drinking machines play the tunes good and loud, through melodic, catchy pirate festivities.

According to Bifröst, every day is Oktoberfest, so reach for your favorite O’Douls or Warsteiner Fresh or Clausthaler Premium and party it up correct. Bifröst is upbeat rocking fun party folk metal with shrieked vocals and it's one of most drinking-and-dancing albums that you will hear all year from a metal band. Whether it’s the Texas two-step or the polka or just get down with your folk self in Lederhosen.

If you are a grouch, then stay miles away. All the merriment will infuriate you. You can't hang with this folk metal fun, which runs for a total time of 1 hour and 10 minutes, more or less. The shrieking/growling is in German, and it’s awesome to learn some fancy lines in German, such as, “Friend, will you do the folk metal Texas two-step with me?” Or, “Bartender, I will have a rum and coke, hold the rum.” Bifröst has lots of melodies, fast drumming, shrieking/growling vocals, catchy tunes, fun vibes and sing-along bar tunes. Look into it if you want some fun, “fast and grim” melodies. www.facebook.com/bifroestaustria

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I kept hearing that Nux Vomica is hardcore or post-hardcore (whatever that means), or that they are something like experimental sludge, or that they sound like Neurosis or Today Is the Day and other such bands.

For a simpleton like me, all of the above descriptions basically tell me, “That’s what the hipster tree-hugging ‘post-rock’ people are into.”; and I am not skilled to talk about such superduper latest hip music of the flannel-wearing smarrte kolege rich kids with dreadlocks and those rainbow-colored beanies. (If you don’t wear Immolation, Marduk and Saxon shirts, and pentagrams, spikes, inverted crosses and bullletbelts, how is this grandma supposed to figure out who are you, kids?)

I guess all the ‘post’ talk is kind of correct about Nux Vomica, but I don’t know. I’m not really qualified to talk about “post-hardcore” or “post-metal.”

Instead, I’ll tell you what I hear. This album is three songs: two last about 12 minutes, give or take a minute, and another is some 20 minutes. The moods and moments are many: rage; tree-hugging melancholy; doom; shoegaze; headbanging; angry-yet-melodic segments that you have to hear to feel; quiet moments of bass; bass rumblings; minimalistic ambient-like landscapes, to name some ideas that come to mind. When I was first listening to this album, I found myself double checking that it was the same band and that it wasn’t that somehow I had been listening to this band and moved on to a different band and forgot to check. So, yes, it is pretty eclectic, with the bass-rumbly melodic, crusty doom framework; more melodic than you would expect.

No set style per se: it’s all in here: gremlin-like shrieking that is just as much crust punk screaming; double-bass drumming speed, thrashing speeds, vibes that could be called avantgarde incursions or could be experimental crust projections of doom or post-punk ruminations, if you will. I would assume that this band could not care less, just could not even give a shrug of the shoulders if you call the music this or that genre. They might just say, “Ok, whatever you say. If you like it, great!” (Or, they might just give you a smirk, depending on whether they are nice or super arrogant elitist wealthy artists too busy to talk with the little people, like you and me.) More and more, bands based in Portland, Oregon seem to be getting their names out there. I have enjoyed the sounds of funeral doomsters Ephemeros and the grind of Honduran, for instance. I wonder which of the crop of bands from Portland will start to experience national and international success. It could be that some Europeans will go absolutely bonkers when they hear Nux Vomica. I would think that Nux Vomica should be in the mix of the “Portland

that soon might take over. One more thing: the band will not like what I am about to do, but I’ll do it just the same. Perception is personal. The album’s track list could be divided up differently just as easily. For example, the almost-20-minute song “Choked at the Roots” could be:

00:00-03:23 (mellow spacey, bassy part); 03:24-10:42 (faster, uptempo); 10:43-14:38 (ambient-ish, space rock-ish); 14:39-19:48 (melodic, crust)

See what I did there? I just mutilated the band’s epic song. Shhhhhh! Don’t tell them that I did this. Hate mail might be on the way. Anyway, give this album a chance. I did it and found out that Nux Vomica rocks. Something is going on in Portland. Keep Portland weird.

PS: FYI, according to the interweb: nux vomica is a plant and is an important source of extremely poisonous strychnine used to kill certain animals, like rodents. (Wait. What? Did they just now insult their listeners by calling them rats? Is that what happened just now, right now? These Portland people are too smarrte for their own good.) www.facebook.com/nuxvomicaband Cultfinder (U.K.): Hell’s Teeth (Eldritch Lunar Miasma R.) Given that Cultfinder now has two EPs: “Black Thrashing Terror” (2012) and “Hell’s Teeth” (2014), it’s an appropriate time to think about the cult. Genealogically, the lines might be traced as follows: Venom. Hellhammer and early Bathory, of course. early Sodom and early Destruction. early Sarcófago. Blasphemy. and especially Nifelheim.

Cultfinder features “black thrashing” songs of the devil and hell. Cultfinder has mastered the art of “black thrash”: this “thrash” is caustic and this “black metal” is no hipster haberdash, either.

If the genealogy listed appeals to you, know that the band wants you as a listener. If you happen not to know, that’s no problem, either, as long as thrash and black metal are two genres that you support, and want to see converge in an alliance of fire and brimstone. Once you go this path, you might not ever come back. Nor would you want to. Grab your bulletbelt and pentagrams, and let’s go. www.unholycultfinder.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/unholycultfinder June 25, 2014