Intothecrypt : "Vakor"

This Russian band is technically folk metal it just so happens the metal side of the equation is death metal. So the big cinematic sound they conjure is in the same part of the woods as perhaps Moonsorrow, just with a less frosty viking feel. The title track is a little more upbeat and straightforward than the first two songs which are in a darker part of the forest. The are almost like a death metal Dead Can Dance on "Yavi Sya Merek" . Though after I typed that I realized that a death metal Dead Can Dance might be another way of  saying it reminds me of old Negura Bunget. Instead of really wallowing in the atmosphere the gutiar tend to chug ahead without stopping. When sung vocals come in they do so in a less than predictable fashion.

There are moments that are darker and more brooding. At the end of the day while I prefer dark, I will compromise it by a few degrees for songs that really grip me. They do a good job of employing melodic tension as needed. "Deko Po Markushe" opens with female vocal that work better than the bellowing grunt of the vocals. The folk elements begin to fade into the edges of the song as window dressing for mid tempo death metal. The song after this falls into a similar formula. "Dolne Videnie" falls in line with your more typical folk metal just without the power metal like silliness. It's broken up with atmosphere that kills the momentum in a way that when it kicks back in it feels like a new song.

There feels like more Irish vibe going into "Mga". It's mid tempo death metal once again though not following a hard and fast formula. The album ends with a song that is also the band's name. It has a darker pagan feeling to it. The death metal growls have officially gotten stale for me by the last song. The album begins to lose momentum towards the end , but overall it is pretty solid and is a good example of how folk metal doesn't have to sound like elf drinking songs. ,

TRIØXIN : "Огни"

This album came out back in February, but flew under the radar.  Russian post punk band is dark and yet pretty upbeat. Their guitar tone sounds more surf rock than death rock. They throw in some double bass and pick things up a bit when the song builds in the last minute. They rock out even harder on the second song, which I think is great as it shows there is more than one way to this sort of thing and many of the post-punk revivalist bands could use more balls. It could almost be argued that these guys are closing in more on the black gaze sort of thing as they are heavier than most of the more recent Alcest albums. The vocals are mostly in a detached monotone though never really go into a full on Ian Curtis tribute which my ex-wife used to refer to as the voice.

One thing that can be said for this album is the guitar tones are excellent and the guitar playing shows a wide range and they are not limited to holding a chord to build tension as their songs wind around a wide range of dynamics. By the time we get to  fuzzy bass driving "Cat Scratching" I find myself downloading this album as it's something I need in my life. More surf rock also surfaces. "Themselves Gods" has a more over rock feel, though ample amounts of shoe gazing are brought in thanks to the sonic spectrum of the guitars. Indie rock collides with a shady surf rock shimmer on "December Dance". It has a cool slink to it , though not dancey even in December. The vocals don't come in until midway into the song. They are not a huge contribution to the song, but work well enough.

There is more kick to "The Soul is a Fool"  thanks to the drums. The disheartened apathy of the vocals could stand to shift a little dynamically. I am not sure screamed vocals would be the answer , but hear something more going on in my head. The music is interesting enough to distract me from returning to this thought. Their drummer is this shit for this kind of music and is certainly the metal head of the band though I suspect their might be more than one. Even though it has more of a rock guitar riff somehow in my mind the previous song just kind of bleed over into this. I suppose the rather uniform vocals added to this confusion. The more sonic sweep of guitar at the end is a nice dynamic touch to the song.

On the last song it feels like the vocals are making more of an effort to actually sing. Once again they rise to the occasion when it comes the very fluid guitar lines that ebb and flow. I'll give this album a 9.5 and see how much play I get from it , the vocals are really the only thing that keeps it from being a 10. If you like shoe gaze or post punk this album is well worth your time.




 

Up From the Underground: Attik Door's "Never In Agreement

This San Francisco based band of Russian immigrants took the last year and a half to write the songs . The opener is vocal fueled radio rock in the vein of Halestorm. the 90s rap rock influences creep their head for the more staccato vocal attack of their singer Liana Tovmasyan. The smoothed out pop sense to her melodies at times do have a Gwen Stefani accent to their phrasing, but as a band they never touch upon ska and thus swerving away from Stefani's new wave quirk. Though her inner Stefani does come out in it's most unabashed manner on "Moody"

When they back off from the straight forward rock approach  on "California" and step off the distortion pedal it allows their singer more room to work with and she takes them ironically in a more Euro sounding direction despite the song's title recalling bands like the Gathering and Guano Apes. The guitar solo tend to straddle the fence of 80's arena rock when such indulgences reached their peak.This 80's element that band's like Halestorm and Pretty Reckless embrace are also given a spot light in the big chorus of "Snorting Headlines", I am sure this would be exaggerated even further if the band had settled in L.A. rather than San Francisco that tends to either have a laid back hippie vibe from the Haight Ashbury days or the metal leaning from the thrash scene that sprung from the Bay- area in the 80's birthing bands like Metallica and Testament.

One of the albums more interesting moments is the slight darker turn reflected in the lower vocal harmonies of "Cyber World" the guitar chugs in a tighter Tool like manner.One of the albums most interesting riffs its the more progressive "Kosmos". When the verse kicks in it takes a more straight forward direction, though the guitar tone remains a little more organic sounding until the bouncy chorus which is as close as they come to touching on ska elements.  The riff to "Spinning out" reminds me of the Finger Elven song that came out a few years back, where they tried to tone down the metal guitar and and masquerade themselves as a dancey band like Franz Ferdnand They are not recreating the wheel here and obviously wear their influences on their sleeves but this is well written, well produced and well executed, and better than most of the current crop of so called rock bands like Imagine Dragons ,who lack the balls to pull it off. For a band that is almost half girls to have more stones to them ...I'm not sure what it says about the current state of rock on the radio.

Salome's Dance: "S/t"

So lets see how they do with death rock in Russia. From the opening song it sounds like production is a challenge , but they have all the other ingredients. This came out around Halloween, so we didn't miss the boat on this one by much. The strong points about this is the singer can emote like Rozz Williams without being a total imitation and these guys don't over do the punk angle. Ten songs is a lot from one of these sort of bands, so can they keep all the bats in the air for the duration will be interesting to see.

"Wait" doesn't have as much gusto as the opener. So the skepticism begins. The chorus is more punk and sounds more like a refrain.The singer's voice takes on a slight Jello Biafra waver. Things get back on a gloomier track, while still retaining the Dead Kennedys element on " Cyhret". These guys can pack a punch, without getting too metal, which is surprising for me to say considering how much I like Atriarch...and this is mainly a metal blog, but I don't think that would work as well for this band. The tribal drone of "Ragnarok" has an angular pound to it. They find their feet best when exploring the darkside of the moon on "Moon" that has a decidedly more Christian Death slant to it. The single note riff does tend to over drone on itself, but even Rozz and the boys could get carried away with that sort of thing if the right drugs were involved. At times at the mid -point the machine starts to collapse, the disjointed "Machine" being one whose drone is not as compelling.

They do explore their more feral punk side on "Spectacle" . This descends into a deliberate pound, where the guitar wanders like a drunken ghost. The vocals punch themselves into the right places to hold the song together. They give into their anger on"August".The raw attack is really only off set by their guitar tone. "Key" find the surreal chanted vocals dancing around the dark disjointed guitar with elegant grace. The bass roughs things up as the drums fall back into a more punk pace.They close out the album with "Lilith" which carries an almost Alaric like heft to it's pound. They take an interesting plunge into darkness on the melodic middle section that has a tribal drone not unlike the Rape Blossums album I reviewed earlier today. The pace picks up and flexes some dynamic muscle that really ends the album strong.

There were a few shaky moments in the albums middle section, but overall I'm more impressed with these guys than I have been the bulk of bands calling themselves death rock this year. I will give this one an 8 and imagine it will grow on me with more listens.