Kataklysm Release First Track from New Album

Canadian death metal veterans Kataklysm released the lyric video for the song 'Guillotine' off of their upcoming album today. The new album, titled "Meditations", will be out on June 1st. Kataklysm are always a good bet to release a heavy, well done album and I doubt their thirteenth effort will be any different.

Nervosa to Release 'Downfall of Mankind'

Nervosa will be releasing their third album on June 1st. If it's anything like the Brazilian thrash trio's first two albums, it will be solid!



Preorder packages can be found here:
http://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/store/nervosa

Horror Review: Baskin (2015)

Baskin is a Turkish film, so if you can’t stand reading subtitles, it might not be for you. If subtitles don’t bother you, well, you’re in luck. It’s always interesting to see a non-North American take on horror films; in fact, most of my favourite horror movies are from European countries.

While Baskin has been criticized by some for lacking a solid plot, it doesn’t really need one. It’s interesting enough in it’s own regard to worry about being completely plot driven. The introduction feels a bit long and tedious. For a film that doesn’t turn out to be character-centric, it feels as though a little bit of time was wasted in the first half of the story relaying the conversations between the team of police officers. That is my biggest criticism of the film; although the idea of drawn out conversation itself is a bit banal, this conversation is probably not one you’d find in a North American produced film.

Once you get into the meaty parts of the film, you realize that the atmosphere is very different from most horror movies. The scenes in the basement of the abandoned basement are quite suspenseful and tense without relying on the anticipation of jump scares. The visuals in this film are interesting and the shooting techniques definitely add to the disturbing nature of the characters of the ‘cult’. The main antagonist, Baba, is incredibly creepy. Everything from his appearance, to his movements, to his voice.

Without giving away too much, I found Baskin to be a bit of a mind-fuck. It’s a Hellraiser-esque questioning of dreams and reality that makes the viewer not want to sleep. (If you were to compare it to a well-known horror film). Overall, I enjoyed Baskin; it was something truly different from mainstream horror while still managing to be worth watching.

Worth Watching: Definitely 

Necrophobic - 'Pesta' Video

Necrophobic have very recently released the official video for the track titled 'Pesta', from this year's Mark of The Necrogram album. This band represents some of the best aspects of a blackened approach to death metal, and this video is worth watching. 

Kalmah: New Songs from Upcoming 'Palo' Album

The date is fast approaching when Kalmah is set to release 'Palo' upon the world. It's been a long wait since 'Seventh Swamphony'. With a band as proficient at melodic death as these Finns, I'm excited to see what's in store on this one. I wasn't overly enthused after hearing the first release, "Evil Kin", but the second song released, "Blood Ran Cold", has upped the ante.

Pre-Made Patch Vests: What The Fuck?

(Excuse the expletive title, but it truly is an appropriate representation of my feelings.)

           

The battle vest, patch vest, jacket… Whatever you refer to it as, it’s an essential piece in the closet of many metalheads. Once upon a time, a post appeared on a local store’s social media page suggesting that they should sell pre-made or pre-assembled battle jackets. My first reaction was an immediate, resounding exclamation of “what the fuck? Seriously?”. Followed by laughter, followed by a slight feeling of offense. Surprising how such an offhand comment could elicit such an emotional response and still leave me discussing it, and frankly, still shaking my head in bewilderment countless weeks later.

            Battle vests are such an integral piece of clothing within the metal community. They are an expression of individuality and a symbol of comradery. All in the form of a seemingly simple piece of outerwear covered in a multitude of band patches. Go to any metal show or festival and you’ll see a variety of battle jackets. Each one is somewhat unique, showcasing the wearer’s individual style and some of the bands that they enjoy. So, the question becomes one of how a pre-made battle jacket fits into the picture. In my opinion, the answer is pretty simple. It doesn’t. Which leads to another question: why doesn’t it work, and why would a long-time metalhead have such strong feelings about it?

            Consider the battle jackets you’ve seen. They’re all different. Some follow specific themes, containing all thrash bands, following a colour theme such as exclusively black and white patches, some with a random splattering of bands from numerous sub-genres. Some are denim, usually either black or dark blue. Leather is another popular choice, particularly amongst black metal listeners. Pins and spikes are other common adornments. Some jackets are pristine, others look like they’ve seen their fair share of mosh pits and spilled beer. Battle vests can become a conversation point. Many conversations are started with “hey, sick ‘insert band name here’ patch!”.

            Battle vests should tell a story. And not just a story about walking into a store, grabbing one off a hanger and ending there. While some choose to acquire all of their chosen patches before constructing a vest, others build their vests over time, adding patches as they’re acquired. They often represent years of investment in time, planning and money. At least on the surface. Talk to many owners of a battle vest and they’ll probably relay a story about acquiring those patches. Some acquisitions involve scouring the internet for hours in search of that specific, perfect find. Depending on personal opinions (and maybe ethics), sometimes that perfect find isn’t even officially licensed or endorsed, but usually represents something rare. (Case in point: one of the Morbid patches on my own jacket).

            Many other patches are acquired online through the individual webshops of bands. Sometimes contacting a smaller band directly will result in new additions to the battle jacket as well. These finds always feel a bit more satisfying than buying from a wholesaler or big record label website, but it all depends on what a particular metalhead listens to. For example, you’d be pretty likely to find an Iron Maiden patch almost anywhere that sells patches but you’d have a more difficult time finding a patch from a small folk metal band. Either way, opening the mail is always exciting when you’re waiting for new patches to arrive.

            Other times it becomes a mission to hunt down patches at shops that sell band merch and music. With these becoming fewer and farer between, it’s a small victory to actually find something good. Sometimes the best shops are in other cities and it becomes an excuse for a road trip, or a hunt to find other neat local stores when venturing away from home. Usually it’s a good excuse to do something with friends and hopefully snag that unique patch before your friend notices.

            Of course some of the best stories behind patches come from the ones acquired at shows. They’re a reminder forever after of that particular concert, brining back memories and points to reminisce over. It’s always a bonus when bands bring patches as part of their touring merch, especially considering they’re usually fairly priced and there’s no shipping costs or wait times to contend with.

            As previously mentioned, creating an individual vest is a major investment of time and money. If you hand-sew your patches, you know exactly how much time it takes. And the amount of times you inevitably stab your fingers. Even with a sewing machine, it’s pretty time-consuming unless you’re very adept at sewing. Plus, that comes with it’s own challenges of broken needles, re-threading bobbins and having sewing machines ‘explode’ in the process, taking hours and endless frustration to put back together without an instruction manual. (That one is from personal experience). Admittedly, I’ve also lost a few patches along the way that I still can’t find, despite ripping my house apart in pursuit of them. I doubt I’m the only one who has experienced this frustration.

            Looking strictly at the money aspect, it would be, quite frankly, stupid for any store to sell a pre-assembled battle jacket. To start with, a new vest or jacket (not thrifted, up-cycled etc) is going to likely be a minimum of fifty bucks. Start adding the cost of patches, and you’re talking a good chunk of money. A back patch probably runs somewhere in the realm of twenty dollars, give or take. Looking at my own vest as an example, the average cost of smaller individual patches is between seven and eight dollars, factoring in differing prices and shipping costs paid on some of them. Currently, I have fifty-one patches and a back patch, some of which aren’t even sewn onto my vest yet. Using seven dollars and fifty cents as an average price, and adding in another twenty for the back patch, that’s slightly over four hundred dollars worth of patches. Granted, that has been spread over many years, but it’s still a staggering amount of money for something that seems pretty simple. And I didn’t add the cost of the vest itself, as it was a gift.

 Considering this, plus the labour involved, there is no way that any store is going to be able to add their profit margin into the mix and have a product sitting on a shelf that someone is willing to pay the asking price for.  (This immediately comes to mind concerning the particular store in which the original social media comment was directed toward as they tend to charge some pretty outrageous markups). There are some very talented individuals willing to do custom orders for jackets and vests, perhaps adding some patches or some hand-painted design, but this is a specialty, niche market and the price of these items reflects that. If you go this route, you will get quality and a one of a kind item, which, again, is definitely reflected in the price. But you don’t see these custom designs sitting on store shelves; they’re typically only offered through the designer’s webstore or perhaps at the designer’s booth if they vend at events. And honestly, when factoring the materials cost and the time that these creators have put into their work, they probably aren’t charging enough to account for the retail mark-up that many stores like to charge.  They aren’t exactly the kind of items that you’d be likely to find collecting dust in the racks of a retail store.

After all of that rambling, it boils down to the battle vest being a collection of stories and adventures, tied together by a love of music. If you were to walk in and grab a fully adorned battle vest off a hanger, you lose all of the stories and authenticity that goes hand in hand. You are no longer getting a ‘custom’ product.  You haven’t invested the time that everyone else with a battle jacket has. You haven’t put in the work yourself. You’ve failed to understand that a battle jacket is truly more than just an item of clothing and in the opinion of this metal head, you’ve defeated the purpose of owning one.

Belphegor - The Devil's Son Video

There's something about the imagery that Belphegor conjures that most bands struggle to match...

Kalmah to Release 'Palo' in April

One of the best melodic death metal bands (at least in my opinion), Kalmah, will release their newest effort 'Palo' at the beginning of April. I wasn't even aware that they were working on a new album until the lyric video for "Evil Kin" was made available a few days ago.

My first impression of "Evil Kin" is that the music is pretty decent, but the lyrics are weak. I have high expectations for Kalmah as I feel that their entire discography is rock solid. As such, I'm looking forward to this album and hoping that "Evil Kin" might actually be a weaker point. It's definitely not bad, but it's just not as mind-blowing as I'm used to from this Finnish powerhouse.

Swedish Bands To Deliver The Goods In February

Two very different sounding bands, both hailing from Sweden, are set to release new albums this February.

First out of the gate is Grimner, a folk metal band from Motala. They play a style similar to Månegarm while adding their own unique elements. 'Frost Mot Eld', which was released in 2016 was easily one of my favourite albums of that particular year. 'Vanadrottning' will be available on February 9, 2018.

Stockholm's Necrophobic will be dropping their new album on February 23rd, 2018. Titled 'Mark Of The Necrogram', it promises to be a proficiently solid blackened death metal release. This is one band that hasn't managed to achieve much recognition, but has none-the-less put out some fantastic albums. With nearly five years in between albums, I'm certainly looking forward to this one.

The Best Of 2017

I was far from diligent in reviewing new releases in 2017; that much is evidenced from the serious lack of posts doing just that. With all of the "top releases of 2017" lists coming out in December, and my difference of opinion from most of them, I wanted to share my top picks of last year. Keep in mind that these are my FAVOURITES, highly subjective to my own personal taste in metal.

Top Five (from well-known bands):

Belphegor - Totenritual
Blackened death metal (Austria)

Entrails - World Inferno 

Death metal (Sweden)

Cut Up - Wherever They May Rot

Death metal (Sweden)

Kreator - Gods Of Violence

Thrash metal (Germany)

King Of Asgard - Taudr

Viking metal (Sweden)

Local Picks:

My favourite releases from bands I've had the opportunity to see live and watch grow over the last few years. If you're into the style of metal they play, I'd recommend checking out these albums. Admittedly, there are a few of my Canadian favourites from whom I failed to pick up albums from in 2017. 

Körperlose Stimme

Blackened death metal (Canada)

Forsaken Rite 

Folk metal (Canada)

Shared From Transcending Obscurity: Swedish Death Metal Highlights

Maybe it's the increasingly cold and snowy weather, or maybe I'm just feeling in need of delving deeper into some Swedish death metal lately due to being stuck at home. Either way, I ran across this article on the website of the Transcending Obscurity record label/online magazine a while ago and felt it was well-worth sharing:

https://tometal.com/special-highlights-swedish-death-metal-highlights/

I know absolutely nothing about Transcending Obscurity itself, but after seeing some of the bands they've signed and doing a bit of browsing on their site, it definitely seems like a good place to check out once in a while. This article gives a good round-up of what has been going on in the Swedish death metal scene recently, focusing on bands that are probably a little more obscure than some of the 'big' names of the sub-genre.

I haven't had a chance to listen to probably half of the bands mentioned in the article, but would agree in recommending Interment, Entrails, and Cut Up. A few of the others, such as Under The Church, Paganizer, and Vangheld are on my radar but I don't feel like I know any of their material well enough to comment about it other than liking what I've heard. As for the rest, it leaves a hell of a lot of bands I've either never heard of, or heard of in passing to check out!

If you're interested in Swedish death metal, I'd recommend giving this article a quick scan (at the very least). You'll probably find something to pique your interest.

Exploring the Roots Of Finnish Folk Metal with Wolfhorde

Finland's Wolfhorde is often hailed as blackened folk metal, and I suppose rightfully so as the atmospheric elements of black metal can be heard interspersed throughout their work. In fact, they are a pretty good embodiment of that unique 'Finnish sound' that makes many bands from that particular country identifiable, even if you have never listened to them before. It's a sound that seems to permeate (to some extent) almost every band from Finland, no matter which sub-genre of metal.

Wolfhorde's 2016 release, 'Towards The Gates Of North', was one of the more memorable releases of the year for me and the band is set to release a new EP on December 1st. Titled 'The Great Old Ones', it's a three song tribute to the roots of Finnish folk metal covering a few of the true masters of the genre: Finntroll, Moonsorrow and (early) Amorphis. I'm stoked to hear this in its entirety, as the teaser promises good things:

Körperlose Stimme: Making of 'Souls Of The Forest' video

Körperlose Stimme have just wrapped up a handful of tour dates supporting their debut full-length album, 'Souls Of The Forest', with upcoming dates in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in the next few weeks.
Personally, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this album as I've been following this blackened death metal act basically since their inception as a band. If you get a chance, I highly recommend going out to see Körperlose Stimme live. You won't be disappointed.

Körperlose Stimme Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/KorperloseStimmeMetal/

Horror Review: Rings (2017)

Although part of the Ring franchise, I’m reviewing the latest installment of the series as a stand alone film. It’s been close to ten years since I’ve watched The Ring, and honestly, I don’t remember enough about it in order to compare it to Rings. It obviously didn’t make much of an impression on me. On another note, I don’t think I’ve watched the Japanese original either.

Rings provides an origin story for Samara, the demonic well-dweller who manifests through television and computer screens. Other than providing some immediate excitement, the opening sequence isn’t really necessary. (The film could have just started with Gabriel purchasing the VCR and videotape). But as most horror fans might agree, a little extra of the ‘scary’ stuff isn’t a bad thing either. We’re reintroduced to the videotape (now digitalized from the VCR tape) and the subsequent “Seven Days” phone call through an experiment being run by Gabriel, a college professor. Setting Julia’s investigation into motion by enclosing it in the premise of a college professor’s experiment actually works well. It provides reasonable explanations for many of the other plot elements that pop up.

Rings raised a few questions. The film doesn’t really explain why Samara was born as an evil manifestation to begin with. Sure, she was the product of a priest raping her mother and keeping her captive in an underground bunker, but this alone (as disturbing as it in itself) doesn’t really account for her inherent evil. Especially since there was always something wrong with the child, even though she was not raised by her birth parents, nor kept in captivity, nor tortured or any other number of things. It’s almost like we’re supposed to believe it was just some random glitch that she was born evil. There’s no clear origin for Samara being a terrifying child before she’s thrown down the well. (The demonic being thing is a little more understandable after being discarded down a well). It’s probably an over-analysis, but a child born out of such circumstances doesn’t automatically become evil.

What happened to Evelyn (Samara’s mother) after Samara was born? Wikipedia says that Evelyn escaped before giving birth, but I completely missed this. And where did she end up from there? Besides wandering around as some sort of pregnant spirit? It’s clear that Evelyn disappeared, but how exactly? No doubt Burke had something to do with it, but providing a little more of Evelyn’s story might have been beneficial. Perhaps in another film?

As for another random question, why does Samara suddenly gain the ability to renew Burke’s sight? Apparently his self-inflicted blindness kept him from Samara’s harm because he was unable to see her, but if she had the ability to restore his sight, why not take revenge before now? I guess someone had to find her remains to ‘release’ her, but from Burke’s words, it wasn’t the first time Samara had manifested in his presence.

Burke isn’t immediately revealed as the priest either, which provides some suspense through the film and allows for the plot twists to develop as they do. The best twist is inevitably saved for last, after it appears that Julia and Holt’s lives have returned to normal after cremating Samara’s remains. The meaning of the braille burned into Julia’s hand is revealed. While Julia’s visions lead her (and the audience) to believe that the cremation would release Samara’s spirit and banish the evil presence that possessed her, it’s revealed not to be so. In an unsettling final scene, Julia’s skin begins peeling away where the word “rebirth” was previously burned in braille. It reveals decaying, waterlogged flesh underneath. Further, Julia begins gagging and pulls an impossibly long (and disgusting) strand of wet black hair from her mouth. A camera shot of the mirror suddenly reveals Samara where Julia’s reflection should be.

Overly analytical and critical questions aside, Rings was actually a reasonably suspenseful watch. There was an easily followed, somewhat developed plot line, believable acting, good effects and a few jump-scares. (A lot of horror films manage to fall short of combining all of these elements). While I wanted a few more explanations and answers at the end of the film, I found it pretty solid, especially if you like origin stories and additional insight into your horror antagonists.

Worth Watching: Probably

Horror Review: Cult Of Chucky (2017)

Released at the beginning of October, the newest film to feature the familiar, foul mouthed, possessed doll, Cult Of Chucky continues the story from the previous film. The Child’s Play/Chucky franchise is another I need to revisit, as I’m not too familiar with it. I haven’t seen all of the films, and the ones I’ve seen haven’t been watched any time in the last few years. As such, I viewed Cult of Chucky more in the context of an individual film than a continuation of the franchise. At least in the sense of watching the films back to back, or in order.

At the beginning of the film, Andy (a familiar character central to Chucky’s story) is revealed to have the severed, burned, mutilated head of Chucky in his home. Chucky is still very much alive in his decapitated form, and still very much the smart-ass we’re used to. It’s also revealed that Chucky’s victim (from the previous installment in the franchise), Nina, is confined to a mental institution as the result of being blamed for Chucky’s crimes. Dr. Foley, the psychiatrist in charge of both the institution and Nina’s treatment, has been working to convince Nina she’s guilty, not believing that a possessed doll exists. Which is understandable. Would you believe someone if they told you stories of a kid’s doll possessed by a serial killer? That being said, Dr. Foley isn’t exactly a likeable character himself, proving to be an opportunistic sexual predator.

When the ‘Good Guy’ doll shows up in a group therapy session, the institution door is literally opened to Chucky’s diabolical and murderous rampages. Predictably, the rest of the film revolves around Nina trying to convince other characters that Chucky is real and capable of committing the subsequent (and pretty entertaining) murders that occur. Andy appears in the film several times, attempting to fulfill his apparent quest to destroy Chucky.

Cult of Chucky leans more toward the slasher sub-genre of horror, unlike some of the other films in the franchise. There is still humor in this one, but definitely less so than some of the previous movies. This, for me, is a good thing. I’m not a huge of comedic horror and the entire premise and character development of Chucky himself is one that I find comedic. And that’s not even venturing into Chucky’s dialogue and actions. So the slasher element, minus some of the stupid comedy present in some of the other films, makes this one decent. It might actually be an accessible movie for someone who isn’t already a Chucky fan.

There are no major surprises or twists, but Cult Of Chucky is still an enjoyable watch. And if you’re excited to see the little bastard come back, the film’s ending definitely sets this up. There’s nothing new or brilliant, but there aren’t any major disappointments or holes either. Overall, if you’re looking for a fun horror watch, give it a try.

Worth watching: Probably