Death is June- Vidres a la Sang : "Fragments de l'esdevenir"

 This progressive band is rather interesting. The simmer in melancholy before coming out snarling at you. In some way a good comparison might be a more depressed version of Opeth with the ambient gloom of black metal. In fact, two members of Opeth play in this band. While we have featured other progressive death metal bands on here this month, these guys come at it from another angle. An assessment I can make just after the first song alone. The verses are darker and more aggressive on the verses. Progressive blackened death metal might be a better sub-genre to label them with. I like how they are not all out bombast. Sure, there are parts that speed into blasty sections, but the production keeps the layers separate and clearly divided rather than just hitting you with a wall of sound.  Enslaved earlier forays into more progressive realms serves as a fair point of reference here. 

On the third song it is dark and creepy but just drones in one place and feels more like an intro that never fully builds.  "Fins Aqui" gets stompy before backing off into things break down a bit. It flows back into a bigger more aggressive sound. It even grooves some.  At 8 and a half minutes the song certainly has plenty of time to build. They use this for a stormy tension. It expands into more movement, which feels like a very solid dynamic. If you are into guitar solos these guys have some good ones that are tasteful exercises in shed with melody uncompromised.   

The last song almost has more of a rock n roll sensibility to it in terms of groove. The riffs are strong they feel more like a death metal band here. I like the jazzier solo section in the middle of the song. I think more bands should have a song where they open things up like this. It helps that this dude is a killer guitarist, so his solos add to the song. I will give this album a 9, if you miss the days when Opeth were metal band , but not opposed to the shadows of black metal like darkness haunting things then these guys are for you. 

Aenaon: "Extance"

This album is so clean and precise, that while it sounds great right from the get go it sounds like this is a death metal band influenced by Emperor rather than a black metal. Every thing is too perfect and not dissonant enough. The vocals are without a doubt more death metal. The album does slap you up side the head right from the first chug. They even bring out a sax to further push it in the direction of Ihsahn's solo work, which I would also not call black metal.

If you really want to get tangled up in a tongue twist of labels to throw on these guys, then call them progressive blackened death metal. They even have a very hooky almost commercial melody on "Grau Diva". It's heavier than a band like Lamb of God, but it has a strong hook like they would use, the guitar players are pretty fucking ripping and deserve recognition. Clean vocals and sax hide in the layers on many of the songs throughout the album, some times they are realized with greater effectiveness than others.

Behemoth would be another band that comes to mind listening to these guys.On "Der Mude Tod"there is an element to the clean vocal melody that reminds me of Devin Townsend. The song cross a weird bridge between Emperor and Sigh, with touches of one of Mike Patton's projects. They do use a sample from the Naked Lunch movie in one innovative interlude that actual transcends being filler and makes for a decent song. They do fall into a Myspace metal Slipknot type break down in the song that follows. They are pretty effective with this side of cheese. This flirtation with nu metal, somehow works with the fact they are big dumb and fun, unapologetic metal without any hipster aspirations.

This keeps getting bigger and crazier. The Townsend thing continues to flourish, along with some pretty fucking incredible guitar playing. I can see my girl friend liking this as it's musical enough for her to smooth over the abrasive elements.The dramatics get raised to a fever pitch as the vocals chanting about the desert sound like they are from a puppet show from hell. These guys chops are often indulged , but never in question, they have one of the best keyboardists in metal. "Funereal Blues" has some almost Geddy Lee like vocals that are belted out a little more along the lines of something Pain of Salvation might do , before blasting in death metal.

There is more of a hefty Mastodon feel to the closing epic "Palindrome".The vocals take on a throaty belt that is close enough to a growl for it to easily transition into one, as this album progresses it gets harder to see why any one would refer to this as black anything. It gradually takes on more of a rock n roll ascetic. The burlier more straight forward attack isn't best for what these guys have shown they are  best suited for . There is a cool dark and creepy melodic part in the middle of this song.

The exaggerated and overindulgent manner they throw the songs in your face doesn't make this the most high brow piece of metal out there, in fact they might just have done Mastodon better than Mastodon did themselves this year, so take that for what you will, if you want more fun and less thought in your metal then this album is worth your time. I'll Give it a 9