One man bands impress the hell out of me. I could hardly play the recorder in elementary school, so this level of virtuosity is way beyond anything I could dream of achieving. Max Molodtsov is the magician behind SorrowfulLand which he formed in 2014. Based in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Molodtsov is a member of several other Ukrainian metal bands which span over several different genres.
Faded Anchors of the Past is a huge treat for fans of atmospheric Doom Metal. It’s perfectly melds tragic and somber tones that feel equally as strong and powerful. This is the perfect soundtrack to let your mind drift and have the music carry you away. The contrast of soft clean vocals and some impressive growls are a nice touch and have an early Amorphis Tales of a Thousand Lakes feel on some of the tracks.
Each of the eight songs included here are a separate story to a complete journey. Although the album is over an hour in length, Molodtsov does a fantastic job keeping the listeners attention as everything flows so expertly well. From the piano fills to the heavy and plodding riffs, this album checks every mark on what it takes to make a fantastic Doom album.
Keep an eye on this release as it’s sure to show up in many album of the year lists for 2023.
Ever since my interview with Heljarmadr late list year, I had been looking forward to Lycaon’s release. Fortunately, the wait was well worth at it. Lycaon is a beast of a recording stuffed full of skull crushing beats and darkened riffs.
The first track, “White City Devil,” is a powerful song with some of the most melodic moments of the entire album. The sound is big here and veers into more of a “Black n Roll” style. It’s a total banger and one of my favorite tracks on the album.
Don’t worry GRA hasn’t abandoned their roots . “Flame of Hephaestus,” brings the back the more familiar Swedish Black Metal sound the band sound “Torn Asunder,” sees GRA melding more darkness while adding dome more killer riffs. Heljarmadr’s demonic vocals take center stage here.
The title track “Lycaon,” is sang in the band’s native Swedish language. For me, this makes the song go harder than any of the songs that the band performs in English. Next we treated to a straight up ripping cover of Bathroy’s “Chariots of Fire,” GRA goes hard as fuck here making it an absolute must listen. It’s fast, it’s aggressive, it’s mean, It’s awesome!
“Brannmarkt” slows things down but turns up the darkness. It’s a murky trek deep into darkness. “Jaws of the Underworld,” acts as the perfect send off for Lycaon. The instrumental track boots some incredible drum work and cinematic flair.
All in all, Lycaon is another solid release from GRA. It stays true to its Swedish Black Metal roots while adding in more melodic and black n roll sounds. Luckily, none of this feels force or “experimental.” What you have here is a damn fine Metal album that’s worthy of your attention.
From our good friends at over at Wise Blood Records comes the third release from Indianapolis Sludge masters, Veilcaste. Precipice is full of deep and murky riffs that weigh thick and heavy in the air. Along with this, Veilcaste manages to create plenty of cosmic and spaced out atmosphere. Precipice is sure to please any fan of Stoner or Doom music.
Velicaste keeps the music rather simple throughout the recording. There is no overproduction here. They guys don’t stay too long playing one long riff. However, the album is packed full of plenty of dragging and dirty riffs. (that don’t overstay their welcome) The guitar tones are low with plenty of fuzz, playing in more of a Stoner style. You will find yourself slowly headbanging along to this release, maybe even sparking some herbage. (or go hardcore and drink an Arnold Palmer like in my case)
Vocals come of in a much more “hardcore” style than usually seen in this genre. There is also a little bit of clean singing sprinkled in here and there that actually works really well on this recording.This along with the underlying atmosphere Veilcaste manages to craft some weill written and structured songs.
All in all, it’s not a bad listen and feels like a nice palate cleanser to the extreme music that I usually punish my ear holes with.I have always been more of a speed freak when it comes to my music but Veilcaste may be one of those bands that will leave me venturing out and seeking out more bands in the Doom and Sludge Metal genres.
The first thing that struck me with this EP, is the savage artwork. It’s both clean and vicious. The same can be said for Omnifariam’s musical output in their latest offering, The Suffering. This is pure Death Metal with intense guttural vocals and hammering drums with a super clean and tight production.
According to their bio on Bandcamp, Omnifariam are one of the heaviest acts in Puerto Rico. Judging from their opening track, “Deceivers of the Bleak,” they easily have a case. It’s a powerful barrage of intense riffs, and savage growls. “Leaders of the Dark,” starts off a little slower allowing you a chance to catch your breath with a tight groove. The pace soon picks up into frenzy of killer riffs.
The drumwork on “Enslaved,” is intense and manic. Josean Orta (Fit for an Autopsy) puts on an absolute clinic here. “The Outsiders,” slows the pace down as it gives more focus on the vocals. The track has a much more melancholy feel with as the vocals cry out in more of a raspy filled desperation.
If slower tracks aren’t your bag, don’t fret. “Dehumanized,” ends the EP speeds things back up for a strong finish. All in all a great listen full of clean and savage Death Metal.
Misery of One is the debut EP from yet another killer band from OSDM from Ohio, Mulciber. Through 5 brief and brutal tracks, Muliber tells the proverbial tale of Lucifer’s fall from the heavens. While the subject matter is nothing new for fans of extreme metal, Muliber still manages to serve up plenty of satisfyingly meaty riffs and savage vocals.
Opening track, “Caught in Fire,” dosent waste a moment coming in quick with an early and savage CannibalCorpse vibe. The second part plods along into a heavier and a well welcomed sludgy feel. “Forsaken in Lies,” is a track that really benefits from the vocals. The chorus is haunting and addition of the higher pitched shrieks blend in very well.
“Christ Deceiver,” one of the longer tracks on the EP has some excellent drumwork that really stands out on the song. This along with some hammering riffs and an ending in a vicious breakdown make it the strongest song on the release.
Misery of One does exactly what an EP needs to do. It’s enough to peak your interest and leave you ready for more.
Alright. Here’s a new Metal genre for y’all. Culinary Metal.
This is one of those few albums that come out and every now and then that really surprise you. The album cover instantly grabbed my attention with its morbid and cartoonish style. I had never heard any mention of this Death Metal/Grind band before this review. I wasn’t too sure as what to expect. Quickly reading the song titles, “Aborted Eggs Benedict,” “Rancid Risotto,” and “Heinous Hassenpfeffer,” I knew I was in for something truly different and fun.
A La Carte’s debut full length is equally impressive in both terms of music technicality and heaping servings of darkened humor. After working in a kitchen as a young Metalhead, I can really appreciate the band’s theme, morbid songs about preparing and serving food. To top things and come full circle the band performs their live shows wearing maitre d’ outfits. Just when you thought you’ve seen and heard it all in Metal.
Most “gimmick” bands spend too much time on the gimmick and not enough time on the music itself. A La Carte satisfyingly serve up some good tunes. I actually thought this might have been a side project for some more seasoned scene musicians! The band does a great job mixing in elements of Grindcore, Technical and Brutal Metal into some face melting music. One moment they are playing a soft Castlevania feeling melody and the next they are bringing a savage beatdown on your senses.
This a solid album that has no business being this good. If I was still working in the kitchen, these tunes would be blasting on my prep station. I only wish I had heard this album earlier as it totally would have made it into my top release list for 2022.
When Wise Blood Records first mentioned this split’s upcoming release, I was pretty pumped as I’ve been on a Nattmaran kick lately. I haven’t heard Terror Cross prior to this release but I figure if they are cool enough to team up with Nattmaran, they’re cool enough for me.
Each band contributed 5 tracks to this EP, 4 original and one cover. Hellripper’s James McBain lends his shrieks on the opening track, “Savage Urges,” that is an assault of early thrash and black metal. They continue their thrashing assault with each blistering track. The riffs and solos still have plenty of grooves that still match the band’s fury. Their cover of Bathory’s “Conspiracy with Satan,” is a perfect choice as it lends itself perfectly Nattmaran’s sound and style.
Terror Cross takes things in a slightly different direction. Their sound is a little darker and murkier. Their is still plenty of thrash to be found here, it’s just covered in a thick layer of blackened ooze. “Metal Bloody Metal” is a hard hitting march that feels like it pounds through your chest with its haunting chorus.
The biggest highlight of this split is Terror Cross’s interesting choice to cover Manowar’s “Gloves of Metal.”
If your life is anything like mine, it’s a mad rush of things you need to do before the end of the year holidays. You may find it difficult to take time to stop and smell the coffee (sorry, not sorry) or check out any new tunes.
Pre-Human Vaults has your listening needs covered in their short and densely packed 4 song EP, Allegiance Divine. If you are looking for a last minute gift for your Metalhead friend who has everything, Pre-Human Vault’s brutal Death Metal and Thrash stylings are sure to impress even the most jaded headbanger.
The EP opens up with the aptly named, “Whirlwind Reaper.” With plenty of Djent styled chugging, the track is a monster of a beat down. The vocals are equally as intense and merciless. There is plenty of groove included as well that helps balance the total chaos happening in this track.
“Close to all, Next to Nothing,” starts out a little softer and includes some great galloping melodies and some cool solo fills. The extra layering of some synths is a nice touch. “When the Trap is Set,” adds some more synths that can be felt for the duration of the song, giving it a really creepy vibe. Some more “heroic” feeling guitar melodies are added in given the song a real “epic battle” sort of feel.
The amazing vocal work and pummeling guitars guide this EP into the essential listening category that will leave you battered, broken and looking for more.
Lust Witch’s deput, We All Die Alone, is four tracks of murky and sludgy doom crawling out from the depths of Indianapolis. Interestingly enough, the 4 song titles are taken from the words in the album title with “We,” being the first track and so on. With that thought process in mind, this album is meant to be enjoyed as a complete listen. Each track melds into the next. Don’t put this one on shuffle.
“We,” starts off softly with an eerie tone coupled with some creepy chants in the background. Lust Witch slowly build up the temp and intensity into the second track, “All.” The tones are a little harsher and the sense of dread still hangs thick in the air. With “Die,” the longest track on the recording, Lust Witch continues with more vocal work and more thick and chunky riffs. Throughout the first 3 tracks you can really sense that Lust Witch is building to something.
“Alone,” closes things out starting with some thick and nasty bass grooves and trench deep guitar tones. As the song title would suggest, “Alone,” has an unshakable depressing feeling of isolation and loneliness and despair. Everything your blackened little heart wants from a Doom EP.
Dark Funeral are currently halfway through their extremely successful North American tour with extreme metal titans Cannibal Corpse, Immolation and relative newcomers, Black Anvil. The fans showed up in full force with this string of shows with many of the dates selling out and the rest with very few tickets remaining.
The Cincinnati show which took place at Bogart’s, one of the city’s longest running music venues wasn’t sold out but it sure felt like it. People were packed and crammed into the tiny venue excited to witness a night of killer metal. Black Anvil started the evening off early and did an incredible job. I was both surprised and impressed. I had not heard any of their material before checking them out live and will definitely seek them out in the future. Immolation’s set was brutal as fuck as usual for an Immolation show. Headliners Cannibal Corpse proved that they are still one of the finest live Death Metal acts around even after all of these years.
Seeing Dark Funeral live for the first time was amazing. Immediately upon entering the stage, their presence and energy could be felt throughout the entire venue. From the first note of the opening song, “Unchain my Soul,” the crowd was totally captivated by their performance until the end of the set closing track, “Where Shadows Forever Reign.” It was crazy to think that another band had to follow this killer performance. (In fact, I was so worn out I left towards the end of Cannibal’s set)
Before the gig, I had a chance to sit down with Heljarmadr, Dark Funeral and GRA’s vocalist. Despite his extremely intimidating stage presence, he is a very thoughtful and accommodating person off stage. I don’t think I would have had the balls to speak with him in his stage gear!
Trve Kvlt Coffee: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me before the show. Just to start things off, how has the tour been going so far?
Heljarmadr: So far so good I think. Turnout has been awesome. All the bands are performing excellent; it has been a pleasure to watch them all. I think it’s rolling strong. Very strong. There have been a lot of sold out shows.
TKC: That’s what I was going to say. There has been a few sold out shows
H: More sold out shows coming up too.
TKC: That’s awesome. I was at a Cannibal Corpse show earlier this year and a lot of their shows were selling out. I think that was in March. Everyone was so hungry to see shows again after COVID shut downs. How does it feel to be touring again?
H: After 2 years of silence, you can imagine. It’s like being constipated for 2 years and you finally get the shit out. It’s the only way I can describe it properly. You’re really, really hungry and you finally get that pizza.
TKC: Just a big relief now?
H: Yeah. It’s a different world we are coming back to that’s for sure. I mean with inflation and everything. Everything is extremely expensive. Flights are insane but it is what it is. I mean we are back on that road and have to be very glad about that.
TKC: When you are on the road, what do you do with some of your down time? I’ve seen some of your Instagram pictures, what do you look to do in the cities you are in when you have a chance?
H: Actually, I try to do as much as possible. Just before now we had a soundcheck and then I went for a quick run because it’s so warm out. I try to stay fit and see as much as we can.
TKC: This area has changed so much, I wish I had some recommendations for things to check out but I don’t even know what’s around here anymore.
H: It’s still one of those days where I have a lot of administration to do and don’t have much time to do stuff anyway. The first thing I do is, I Google what there is to do in the town. Recommendations, Atlas Obscura, do you know about it? It’s like a website with weird places. They have an app and website, in a new town that’s the coolest website to checkout because it’s weird shit. This town has the world’s biggest stamp and an abandoned railroad. That’s what we try to do as much as possible. Sitting on the bus is a waste of time. We are trying to get out, especially when the weather is as nice as this, it’s amazing to be out.
TKC: I’ve been listening to a lot of We are the Apocalypse. Which is fucking awesome! I wanted to ask about the song, “Let the Devil in,” We did some of the inspiration come from the lyrics?
H: Inspiration comes from everything and it kind of mounds down into a song. It’s kind of an introvert song. I mean looking into yourself and taking control of yourself or letting go, you know? You can do either or. In life you always have choices. You can let the devil in or you can let the devil out. That’s kind of where I’m going with it.
TKC: It was one of those songs where the lyrics just hit write as I was working at my computer today.
H: Yeah. He’s riding on the shadow of my soul, you know? This is how my eyes see the world. It’s like we all have our little angel and demon on our shoulders. They see things differently depending on what mood you are seeing things through. Which eyes you see it through.
TKC: Another song I really dig is “Nosferatu.” You have the song referring more to the original film.
H: Oh yes! The 1922 film. I watched it during the Pandemic actually. I had this weird idea. So I have a lot of time and I’m going to watch Dracula themed movies from oldest to newest and there are lots of them. So I had to make a selection obviously. I started with the first one and nothing measured up after that. Everything became this romantic crap but the first one had a darkness. It’s out of this world, this feeling from that movie. Maybe it’s the fact it’s mute, maybe it’s the fact it’s black and white, everyone that’s in this movie has been dead for a long time, you know? It’s really like an old book but it’s a movie. It’s kind of cool that it’s 100 years old.
TKC: It’s so hard to find a complete copy and find one with the correct original score. I recently heard they are once again going to be releasing a remake.
H: I saw that too with the Swedish guy.
TKC: What do you think of that?
H: Why not? Actually the second best Dracula movie rendition was from a couple years back. It was a 3 episode series or something like that. (Note:This series is named Dracula and is currently streaming on Netflix) A different take for example is the classic movie from the 90’s, Bram’s Stoker’s Dracula, that one was not so good. I don’t think it aged so well. Too gothic for me. But this new one was quite interesting. Some interesting takes on it.
TKC: Nice. I’m going to have to check that series out. You’re working on a new album and when that’s coming out?
H: Well the album is done already. We are just waiting because post Pandemic the world has changed as you’ve said. So the vinyl pressing companies are slow as fuck. Or jammed as fuck. Sometimes it’s even hard to get a hold of material. We decided instead of gambling and getting the CD version and maybe people have to wait to get the vinyl, we decided to postpone and the album will be out in mid January. And that is for sure when the vinyl will be available.
TKC: You also have your solo act as well. I was listening to that last night, which was great. I loved the video (watch below). You have a full album coming out?
H: Yes. It’s being planned to be recorded next year. We’ll see whenever it’s released. We are also negotiating some record deals for that album too. So it’s a work in progress. The drummer for that project will be Dennis Ekdahl from Thyrfing. So we are working together so this can come out next year.
TKC: Awesome! With all of that I have to ask, Do you ever sleep?
H: (laughs) I don’t know, I’m a very restless person. Sitting still is not my thing, you know? Maybe I’m like this shark that has to swim or otherwise I’d drown or something. I like to keep occupied and I like to keep active. I don’t know, I’m just that kind of person.
TKC: I totally feel it myself. I just finished my full time day job before coming here and I’m always grinding and looking for something to do. Again going back to your Instagram stories from the road, I love the picture with the Rocky statue in Philly.
H: Oh yeah! I mean, why not?
TKC: I would have done the same thing. Any spots in the US that you are looking forward to seeing?
H: Well the thing is when we came here we all flew into New York and we had a couple of days before the first show. So we rented a car together and just went sightseeing all the way down to Baltimore. We went to DC to check out the Lincoln statue, those things. That’s something I had really looked forward to seeing. I’ve never been to Washington before and it’s an iconic place that you’ve seen in movies since you were a kid.
TKC: I haven’t been there myself yet.
H: It’s definitely worth seeing. I don’t know what to do there for more than 1 day. In 1 day you will be very overwhelmed and impressed. It’s an impressive thing to see, you get all of the Forrest Gump references. Aside from that I don’t know if there is anything on the radar. I try not to plan too much ahead because you never know what days are gonna be like. You have other things to do like administration or something is broken. I don’t want to be disappointed so I take it day by day. Of course I’m usually thinking a couple days ahead but I try to take it slow.
TKC: You gotta be careful with shows right now. Someone gets sick and that cancels a few dates or the bus breaks down.
H: Someone gets sick, the bus breaks down and you’re stuck somewhere. It happened not the last time we were here but the time before when we were touring with Septicflesh. The bus broke down, so we went to the nearest airport, rented a car and a Uhaul. So we were touring and hitting hotels every night. So that was like an adventure. I’ll never forget that, I’m from a small Swedish town and I was driving my car in Chicago. I think that was kinda cool.
TKC: Definitely different from driving in a small town.
H: I was also driving in DC, I’m not afraid of driving anymore. Nothing can scare me.
TKC: I think that’s all I had for you today. Anything that you would like to add?
H: Thanks to everyone for coming out to the shows, the turnout is awesome and thank you for this interview.
Well the concludes this interview. Be sure to check out Dark Funeral’s newest release “We Are The Apocalypse” and Grá’s newest music video(below) for “Flame of Hephaestus” from their upcoming 4th album “Lycaon”
Here’s some suggested content to check out that is relevant to Heljarmadr:
© Tomasz Podgorny