Unsacred:"False Light"

This Virginia band explodes with an impressive burst of feral black metal. The vocals are a hateful of a rasp as anything you could ask for from the states. They are really forward in the mix rather than the more typical buried placement. The have a very constrained chaos to their attack makes their triumphant gallops stand out. It common place to be impressive by the sheer violence of this sort of music, so it's up to the band from this point on to prove they can not only maintain , but continue to write actual engaging songs.

There is almost a punk rock beat to "Idle" that is not as impressive as the beast they opened with. They lean heavily on blast beats and tremolo picking. Sticking to cookie cutter black metal approach that they defied on the first song. "Plague" finds the band allowing themselves to build even if it is just for the intro, then launch into the full throttle assault that is more metal than the previous song. They do pull out some impressive bounding, bookended by more straight forward sonic blasting. The half time section helps break things up even if ever so slightly, which is what they need more of,as this sort of up to 11 all the time numbs your ears to the heaviness.

They don't seem to plan to let up. Going from one version of in your face at warp speed to a more punk version of the same thing. The backing vocal overdubs, help keep this song sounding like the one s before it. They pay a little more attention to detail with this one, before throwing that out the window and going back fro second on your jugular. The rock n roll feel to "Void 11" is what this album needs to keep it from just racing by you in a foaming at the mouth craze. They can only restrain themselves for so long before launching into the punk rock like thrashing. I think Mutilation Rites does this sort of thing better, Unsacred just has more of a punk take on that style of american black metal.

The drums at the beginning of "Sun" are there to remind you this drummer is badass if you haven't noticed by this point. "Sun" does find a crushing sludge like groove. More of this would have been well place earlier in the album. This is angry and makes you believe, rather than throwing all emotion out the window with everything else the tornado of speed sweeps up around it. They close out the album with "Cage" that is another blur of rapid fire blasting in case you haven't gotten enough of that sort of thing by now. A minute in they give you a brief breathing to play something with melody and then go rabid again. They manage to find a better sense of sonics when they slow it down a hair, but getting them to do that is well maybe two songs out of this album. Though they are a tad one dimensional they work well in the dimension they dwell in. They album captures what they set out to do and has a raw and jagged sound without sound like they were recorded in their Grandmother's basement, with blow speakers. So despite the monochrome sonic setting, this album is accomplishes blending the punk anger with black metal's venom so I'll round it up to an 8.

5

Salvaticus: "Hidden Manna"

I stumbled upon this Virgina band today, they released "Hidden Manna" back in May and I am not sure why it hasn't generated more of a buzz in the under ground circles, unless the fact that it is well recorded and actually sounds good , turned purists off. They make the most of the four songs presented here.  "Breeding Ground" has liberal doses of blasty mcnasty, giving way to their strong thrash roots evident in the fine art of galloping riffing. The clean middle section didn't surprise, it's rather Tribulation like in it's dark wanderlust. These guys are much more tightly coiled than Tribulation, their songs do not feel like they might just be jamming, the heavy parts are very blatant.

As with most metal of this ilk, the drummer Kevin Ardrey steals the show. I would not lump these guys in with technical black metal, such as Death Spell Omega, but they do showcase a finely tune sense of intricate punchy passages, that do not shy from spotlighting their chops. The big sound of the album doesn't hide this with cave like reverb for the sake of earning their corpse paint. Not that any American black metal aside from Wormreich is really slathering on the corpse paint, but these guys seem like they wouldn't be opposed to the idea. They are unapologetic for metal with a capital M , and not the west coast brand of navel gazing desert hipster black metal. Not that I don't some times enjoy good beardy black metal, I'm just a little over the 14 minute song that drones for seven of those minutes, unless we are talking doom.

With that being said these guys aren't writing three minute punk rock jams either and are more progressive than not. They just have more power than math. On songs like "Further" they balance a seething darkness with the urge to blast. The rasped vocals compliments of their bassist Alex Lee are largely a mid-ranged and more hateful than anguished. They are screaming real words and not just gurgling for sounds like the new Mutilation Rites seems to.

"Dark Rift" makes you think it's going to be run of the mill, blast right past you black metal and they go and stick a pretty catchy groove in it. It's the kind of songwriting that tells me these guys are going to heading to bigger audiences in the not too distant future. They are even able to convincingly drop down in an ominous doom lumber on command. Ardey pulls the Morbid Angel trick of speeding up his double bass under the slower riffing.

They do hit the atmospheric white noise drone of traditional black metal on "A Vulture's Feather". Hurtling at warp speed into a frenzied abyss of tooth gnashing tremolo picking. They eventually find their gallop to reclaim their knack for riff craft. By this time the ears have begun to numb, they can pick out an audible bass line that is keeping up with the guitars. The clean break, that seems to be another ingredient in their recipe shines out from the melee. They hang on this strummed part for a tad longer than suspected building it up into the kinda of ending this album deserves. As it takes what they have done thus far and makes it bigger sonically, even if for only a fade out.

I'll round this up to a 9, seems like those are being handed out left and right these days, but these guys earned it, since they came out of no where. They are hipster enough to let you name your price on their Bandcamp page below, so you have little to lose checking them out.  They also released this on limited etd cassettes , so they only handle their business like hipsters.

Ceremony: Distance

This might get confusing, but this is not the post-punk band from the west coast but an east coast band . This band has almost of more psychedelic garage swirl. with a dab of shoe-gaze, think a more lo-fi Beastmilk and you are close. Right from the opener the guitar which carries more of a surf-rock sound than post-punk, is what sets this band apart.

The vocals are not Joy Division like but more like a depressive take on garage punk, with elements of old Sonic Youth at times.There more of a traditional almost dancey post-punk sound to "Sun-glasses Girl" . It reminds you of when early Cure was also considered punk.There's a very A Place to Bury Strangers or Jesus and the Mary Chain feel to "The Summer , the Sun." The bass line keeps the song coasting along a dark road.

They do hit the gas and head full speed into more punk zip codes on "Send Me Your Dreams" but the vocals offset this by becoming more relaxed almost like The Smiths.  

The vocals find a monotone drone on "On Holiday" , this is closer to death rock but it still has more of a garage rock feel. Sixties pop is hinted at in a similar way the Ramones once paid tribute to it on " I Want to Kiss" but it is done much darker here. There songs well hold variety and dynamic through out the course of the album are all pretty much what you hear is what you get. There are no surprises once they get started.
The A Place to Bury Strangers meets sixties garage rock continues on "Shining Light and Star" it makes you surprised that this Ceremony isn't from the west coast and the California band isn't from the U.K.

The garage rock stays the course in variation on the theme as the album winds down.At times the vocals remind me of Psychic T.V in their relaxed delivery. It gets murkier on they smoke filled creep of "Throw Your Love Away" which is one of the albums darkest songs, and it gets more pounding coming out of the chorus. I have no problem rounding this album up to 9 as it has grown on me.