Twilight's Embrace [2012] Traces

Nottingham's Twilight's Embrace is a five piece progressive doom/death outfit. With only an EP under their belt, Traces acts as the band's first taste of new music in two years, again acting as an EP. As far as sound goes, they're pretty cookie cutter "gothic" death/doom, with Opeth flirtations thrown in on occasion. The guitars are full of heavy distortion but also cascade the backdrop so that you're not given a brutal trip, but more so a depressingly somber jerker. The occasional use of acoustic guitars also throws in that Opethy folkish element, which helps break up the monotony of the tracks.

The biggest complaint to me is the vocalist's soft vocals, which are heavily British and just just sound corny 99.9% of the time he does them, it's almost like watching a slam poet try too hard to sound meaningful, it just comes off as silly.His growls are fun, but again are pretty standard for this type of music, and there are tons of bands who sound almost identical to his. And this problem reaches to pretty much every aspect of the band, the guitars, the vocals, and the overly simplistic drumming, it's just too predictable. Aside from a few moments there really is nothing that stands out on this release that would make me want to listen to it repeatedly. Again I am not hating it, it's just not something I connect with and I feel as if I have heard this album done time and time again by more established and skilled musicians. The final gripe I have with this is the fact that almost every lead and build up leads nowhere, it's like getting a lengthy handjob and getting an arm ache 2 minutes from busting.  

But hey, the production is well done, the mixing was done right and it's not a pain in the ass to listen to, so check it out, maybe you'll like it. But to me it gets a big fat meh.

SHIT RATING: ALRIGHT

Raped By Pigs ]2011] Gushing Orgasms 2

Raped By Pigs are a four piece slam / brutal death outfit from Peru, who to my knowledge only have one other ep under their belt from 2009. Much like most slam bands these days Raped By Pigs took every helpful hint from Slam For Dummies and threw together a slow paced, gurgle filled album that has been created countless times before by bigger and better acts. Not to discredit the album, it’s just not something that someone will listen to and hear something fresh and exciting. The album cover however is amazing, in a Cesspool of Vermin kind of way.

But I have to be honest, I am a sucker for bad slam, as long as the production is decent and the vocals aren’t too monotoned I can give your run of the mill slam death band a listen and typically enjoy it, enjoy it in the same way that you enjoy popping a zit, it hurts like hell but for some reason you feel compelled to listen to it…that ladies and gentlement is Gushing Orgasms 2.

Musically and vocally speaking the major slam components are all there: slow paced chug guitar work, brees/gurgles/inhale vocals, and sub-par drumming. But what makes Raped By Pigs kind of fun is how retarded the songs are, and how they seem so slapped together that it’s like witnessing a 25 minute trainwreck that you can’t look away from. Is it terrible? No. It is a fun little diddy to put on when the mood strikes and bang your head to the utterly slow pace and just listen to the array of vocals that come your way.

Production however, something odd happens on this record, and this may be just from a faulty rip but tracks 2 and 3 are actually really well recorded, the vocals are clear and high enough to fill the mix, the guitars for the most part are loud enough to add that signature slam feel and the drums, while a little oddly tuned, fill out the entire ensemble and provide for a decent listen. The rest of the tracks however sound like they were recorded at an earlier time in another location for they are muddy, toned down and do not possess the punch that the aforementioned tracks do. Not to say that they lack in actual writing and playing quality, it just sounds a little like ass being recorded.

Overall it’s a decent album to listen to once or twice, laugh at and delete. It was not nearly as bad as I was expecting but there really is nothing that is special or worth keeping on this album that merits memory storage, so if you get bored and want to waste some time, download Gushing Orgasms 2, if not you won’t miss anything by avoiding it. Personally I will go listen to the new Abominable Putridity.

SHIT RATING: ALRIGHT

Murder Intentions [2012] Conception Of A Virulent Breed

With 2012 almost upon us I decided to get an early start on the the new death metal acts hitting the digital shelves, and Murder Intentions was my first tarted. I had never heard of them prior to this release, and as far as I know they only have a debut and a demo before this, so they are still an up and coming band it seems, and this ep shows why. At first I thought this would be a real gem, due to the dual vocalists in the band, but alas it was a wee bit of a letdown of an album for me. The vocalists are a mixture of guttural growls and metalcore-esque screams and the music itself seems like a weird mixture of The Red Chord style metalcore and that typical slam style playing that has riddled death metal these days. The production isn’t terrible, in fact by most unknown band standards it’s actually pretty good, so no Artery Eruption nonsense here folks. I tried my best to sell it here, but here comes the cons.

Complaints? While the music itself isn’t terrible, and the vocals aren’t the worst I’ve heard, this album just did absolutely nothing for me. I feel like I have heard everything this band has done already in bigger and better acts and the mixture of the metalcore vocals with the bland riffs and the stale gutturals just makes me want to check and make sure I don’t have Bleeding Through playing over Dying Fetus’s later bad material. There’s just a massive lack of brutality and punch with this this release and it just feels like I am being given a half-ass performance by a group of aspiring 15 year old metalheads wanting to make a sweet new band to impress chicks. Clocking in at a hair over 22 minutes, that is exactly the length my patience went with this release, so thankfully they did me the favor of ending the record on a quick note, however the last track is a staggering SIX MINUTE outro that is utterly worthless, so I advise skipping it like I did. Overall it’s not bad, it’s an honest attempt it seems, but I have just heard it all before done way better, for once this review is completed I most likely will never have a desire to listen to this record ever again, nor do I plan on keeping this: hello recycling bin!

SHIT RATING: ALRIGHT

Cynic [2011] Carbon-Based Anatomy

Three years after their controversial album Traced In Air, Cynic are back with another piece of worldly metal fusion, pissing off diehard metal fans across the globe. Progressing in the worldly atmospheric tones that Traced In Air flirted with, Carbon-Based Anatomy is comprised of 3 new tracks, an intro, outro and an interlude, essentially creating a glorified three song ep. A noticeable difference in this release is that none of the tracks feature Paul Masvidal’s signature robot vocals, which to many seems like a blessing but I must admit I miss them. The tracks also aren’t nearly as heavy or groovy as the previous material, including Traced In Air, instead they are more soundscapey and melodic in nature; I don’t believe I recall a single harsh vocal being used once, instead there are layered vocals, Masvidal’s semisignature softspoken vocals and the occasional spoken word-esque parts. The non-musical tracks are interesting, the first being the opening track “Amidst The Coals”, features a female vocalist singing in some foreign worldly dialect. The third track “Bija!” follows this approach, featuring tribal percussion laid over more female singing and male tribal chanting. The outro, “Hieroglyph” is an ambient soundscape finisher with Masvidal faintly whaling in the background while a woman recounts a self discovery story of some fictitious being. As a whole it flows together, it just feels like something is missing.

Complaints? I get that this is an ep, but the bulk of this release just feels like total filler, and considering 50% of the release is comprised of innerludes and completely unrelated tracks, I would have been a little pissed if I actually spent money on this, I mean really Traced In Air was three years ago, one would think in those three years they could deliver something a little more promising. But hey, this could very well be a conceptual release for them, who am I to judge, I just know that if this were a meal I would need about 3 more of them to feel like I got my full helpings. Musically I don’t really mind the worldly direction the band is taking, but I kind of miss the robot vocals a tiny tiny bit. Overall it is one of those things you listen to to keep you entertained until the next proper release and never listen to again.

SHIT RATING: ALRIGHT

Deuce [2012] Nine Lives

I guess this is a guilty please post of sorts, because on paper and majority rule this album is gay as hayl. But ever since the early MySpace days I have always had a soft spot for Hollywood Undead, so here it goes.

After getting the boot from HU Deuce set out to do a solo career and this is his first legitimate effort as a solo artist. I had first heard about this when the Let’s Get It Crackin’ video came out on Is Anyone Up? and the tits and ass sold it for me, so when I saw this on a blog I copped it.

Much like Hollywood Undead, Nine Lives is a cramming of “rap”, rocky scenester music reminiscent of radio rock and post-numetal hard rock and electronica, with vocals ranging from screaming fuck the world to whining about being misunderstood.

The tracklisting for Nine Lives is broken down into three types of songs: Linkin Park style rock songs, try-hard rap tracks and a couple of party songs. The party songs are by far the best, the rockier songs are enjoyable as well, but the rap songs just don’t do anything for me at all. Also worth noting is Jeffree Star’s contribution to this release, for he is featured on Let’s Get It Crackin’, which works well with his part, and Freak Now, which sort of falls flat and is a bit unimpressive overall, which is kind of a bummer because I like Star’s awkward delivery style. The beats on the rap tracks are a little lackluster overall and aren’t too impressive, however the instrumentation on the party/rock songs is pretty fun all around and allows the tracks to stand out on their own, unlike the rap songs that blend into one giant mess. 

It may be unfair for me to pick at this since “rapping” has been in HU since day one, but on here it’s just fucking awful. The lyrics come off as completely stupid and often times embarassing, and they just don’t flow at all on the record, one song talks about how he’s the shit and the next he’s crying about how nobody likes him, it just isn’t pimp behavior and leaves me confused half the time. Also having “Truth” or whoever the hell it is on this release kind of killed it for me too, for every song he is featured in just doesn’t click at all with me, and actually all the “rap”esque tracks don’t click with me. Deuce to me should stick with Crackin’ style tracks and even the occasional whiney song, I just can’t get into his rapping style at all, like at all.

As an old HU fan, I find this to be an alright record, it has some fun moments and it also has a nice chunk of meh on it, but to the average reader of this I doubt you’d enjoy it, so check out the tits instead. 

SHIT RATING: ALRIGHT