Délétère - De Horae Leprae

Band: Délétère
Title: De Horae Leprae
Label: Sepulchral Productions
Release Date: June 15th, 2018
Country: Canada

The québéquois hordes attack again, in this fateful June, covering the poor foundations of what remains of civilization with a macabre chant of plague and redemptive futility, which will end up corrupting our black hearts in an absolute way.

Délétère edits his second Full Length, and joins the already mythical occult black metal collection from Quebec. "De Horae Leprae" is a dense work that delves into a conceptual story set in the dirtiest entrails of the Middle Ages. 

The work introduces us to the life of Teredinis, a taciturn leper who faces the fate of becoming a prophet and the very incarnation of the plague that will strike the entire population.

The band takes the arduous task of dividing the work into nine songs (Cantus), with a total duration of one hour and five minutes. Quite an odyssey of magnanimous proportions. 

Stylistically you could compare Délétère with his compatriots Sorcier des Glaces, with some of Forteresse's characteristics, although strongly inclined towards a more melodic proposal, with hints of DSBM.

The truth is that the album sounds massive, from a sound view. You can see the band's emphasis on leaving behind the sound more inclined to Raw Black Metal, shown from their first demos and their first album, giving way to a more robust sound, with much more dynamics and depth.

The chosen concept and the compositional and sound treatment come together in a wonderful way this time. Of course, even being very melodic, this is a work that swarms away from the accessible and most popular hosts of that genre. "De Horea Leprae" is still difficult, which can result from very difficult digestion, due to the amount of sonic layers, its conceptual density and its duration, perhaps a little excessive.

I think that the only negative point that can be reproached is the lack of variety. The band almost never moves away from the tremolo technique formula on constant blasts, with occasional mattresses of synthesizers. There is a certain hypnotic factor at play, although hard to assimilate, due to its somewhat frenetic and melodic nature.

Beyond these appreciations I can assure you that "De Horea Leprae" is a very solid work and a great step forward in the career of this young band, which ensures the continuity and quality of the Québécois combo and gives us a very good Black Metal album to enjoy, while we fly in a dark dream towards mythical death rattles of medieval decadence. 8/10. Sergio. 

Band:

Facebook

Label:

Official Website

Facebook

Soundcloud

YouTube

8/10 To Greatness and glory!

**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre.
#WeAreBlessedAltarZine
#TheZineSupportingTheUnderground
#SupportTheUnderground

Paroxsihzem Interview

Paroxsihzem is a Black/Death band from Toronto, Canada who formed in 2007. Hellthrasher Productions is their current label but they also have releases in different formats and distribution as well from Dark Descent records, Vault of Dried Bones and Krucyator Productions too. Inspired by nuclear warfare, darkness, chaos, and negativity, Paroxsihzem has been destroying the light for eleven years now. This is an interview with Krag, the vocalist from the band.


Hello Krag and thank you for doing this interview with me for Blessed Altar Zine! What are the near future plans for Paroxsihzem?
Thanks, we've just finished playing 2 shows very close together so now we are going to lay low and focus on writing for our next full-length album and then go from there.

I see on Bandcamp, that you recently put up a previously unreleased track from 2013, titled Excavation of Despair. Is this a single release on its own or is this going to be part of a future release?
It was an old demo track that we recorded before the split with Adversarial. We were pleased with how it turned out but it won’t be part of any future releases we just wanted to release it on its own as a 1 song demo track.

Will Paroxsihzem do a tour in the future, whether for Canada, USA or elsewhere?
We plan to eventually. Most likely after our next album comes out.

Is there a main writer in the band musically or lyrically or do you all collaborate in this process?
Impugnor is the main writer for all the music and I collaborate with him on the lyrics.

Considering Paroxsihzem’s inspirations for lyrical or topic matters, are there certain main musical influences that have had a big impact on the sound or direction of Paroxshizem?
Influences come from all over the place and there are too many to name, but a few of them are Incantation, Arkhon Infaustus, Archgoat, Revenge and Morbid Angel. For lyrics inspiration

Being a musical collector myself, I tend to ask everyone this question. Which do you prefer for listening? Vinyl, CD, Cassette or digital format?
Vinyl and CD for sure.

Out of all the releases from Paroxsihzem so far, is there a release that you like the most?
I would say our newest EP, Abyss of Excruciating Vexes is my favourite Paroxsihzem release.

How do you feel about the ways and means of social media now and how information is used or conducted?
I try to use social media as little as possible and usually only for contacting people. I have mostly a negative view on it these days.

What are your main preferences in musical styles? Whether for metal or other types of music too?
Filthy death metal

Ok, in closing and thanks again Krag for your time with this interview. What inspired the creation of Paroxsihzem as a band and with the name itself too?
We found we disliked the direction of most “metal” bands in the local scene and decided to start our own project. The name Paroxysm, “a sudden attack or violent expression of a particular emotion or activity.” Another meaning, “a sudden recurrence or attack of disease; a sudden worsening of symptoms”. Both apply to our influences, direction and intention with the band. The spelling was slightly altered to fit our directive as well as looks more aesthetically appealing in our opinion.



Interview by: Wolven Deadsoul

Facebook
Bandcamp
Merch

Dopethrone - Transcanadian Anger

Band: Dopethrone

Title: Transcanadian Anger

Label: Independent/Totem Cat Records

Release Date: 25 May 2018

Country: Canada

Format reviewed: FLAC

I’ve always thought that the Canadians were usually calm and nice people. However the title of the new track made me think this might not be the case. "Transcanadian Anger" is the name of the new full length album by Dopethrone, fifth since 2009 in their discography so far. Apparently all band's releases are everything else but neither calm nor nice. That said I'm definitely reconsidering my impression about Canada. (sorry, guys!)

Named after Electric Wizrad's 2000 album, and containing certain words-references in the band's name and song titles, one knows what to expect there. Actually yes and no. I really liked the definition on their FB page: “Dopethrone plays Slutch Metal. It's a foul Canadian mix of yellow snow, crackhead diarrhea, blood, tears and broken dreams”. Dopethrone are the hooligans in the party - cocky, bold, spitting curses, drinking beer, making fights and...offering a dose. Hated by the half on that party, but adored by the other half. 

“Transcandian Anger” is sludgy, muddy and dark record and at the same time very lively and groovy. Crushing very low riffs, heavy bass line and grim vocals, whispering evil spells. Vik, Vincent and Shawn delivered very sticky 36 minutes record, with 8 tracks which you just play and leave going. “Planet Meth” is heavy as fk opener with catchy riff. In “Wrong Sabbath” things can’t go wrong, riffs are recognisable and heavy. “Killdozer” is catchy, groovy and enjoyable with its lively rhythm, and “Scuzzgasm” is slower and includes another solid riffs, reminding for Black Sabbath. “Tweak Jabber” is faster crusher again - “fail/repeat/you’re fucked/tough luck”. “Snort Dagger” is really dark and dragging-into-the-dope-swamp track. “Kingbilly Cush” is a grinning doom rhythm and blues track, really enjoyable. The album ends with “Miserablist” - another desperate track to worship the narcotic possession - “dragging you down, cannot crawl out, gonna die quick”. 

On and on Dopethorne are in their best form, comfort zones and territories with Transcanadian Anger. You know what is going on there - cannabis, murder, death. Sleazy and smashing riffs, nightmarish vocals. In my opinion it is among the best albums in the genre so far this year (and not only). It is a very addictive album actually. Like a fix, need it again and again. No way out! 7.5/10 Count Vlad

Band

Bandcamp
Facebook
YouTube
MySpace
Soundcloud

7.5/10 Victory is Possible
**Please support the underground, it is vital to the future of our genre

#supporttheunderground

Unreqvited – Stars Wept to the Sea

Band: Unreqvited

Title: Stars Wept to the Sea

Label: Avantgarde Music

Release Date: 16 April 2018

Country: Canada

Format reviewed: FLAC

There is music that is dark, full of grief and pain, but it does lift you up. You can feel it with every fibre of the skin and every tiny piece of your soul. When you are down, you need it so badly, just because it is sorrowful, but you know you will feel better and much inspired after listening to it. Per aspera ad astra!

This is the new album by Unreqvited – “Stars Wept to the Sea”. A music for all Those (precious) moments. It drowns you in own atmosphere, creates an own world of experiences, gives you those forgotten feelings, and makes your heart bleed…So much inspired, so much inspiration!

The present third album of this one-man Canadian band is a stunning, again – stunning, journey into the most intimate parts of the soul - 8 tracks of atmospheric post-black metal, torturous layers of vocals, but with abundance of sorrowful piano lines, glorious keyboards estrangements, crystal clear guitars, post-rock parts and patterns, and full of (this so modern nowadays) blackgaze.  Written, engineered, mixed and mastered by鬼 (ghost), “Stars Wept to the Sea” delivers cosmic, airy, invisible to the eye thread of feelings, turning it into a grandiose burning pyre with every second during the forward playthrough.

“Sora 天” is the epochal 7-minutes entrance into this Unreqvited record. It is a tribute to one of the author’s favourite composers – Brunuhville, and his song “Into Darkness”. Followed by the heavier, grieving and blasting “Anhedonia”, the album continues to dive us into the black observation of the inevitable transformation. “Stardust” is the perfect description of the record – mesmerizing crystal clear shiny beginning, turning into black desperation taking over everything on its way. “Kurai 暗い” is just what it translates – dark, gloomy, dull, dispirited, depressed, sorrowful, bitter – with clear introduction to the heaviness of the bitter burden it carries in its second part. “Empryrean” is piano instrumental which gives us a fresh breath, but this will cost tears… “White Lotus” is spreading its beautiful clean colours into one’s dream. The track also gave another curious glimpse and I searched again for the deep meaning it has in the history of China, the Buddhism and the dynasties through the ages… Namida 涙 is again a short piano instrumental before jumping into the 13:13 minutes “Soulscape”, a pure post-black painful track with so many different faces; the final of this grandeur  journey.

No need of a lot of words to be honest. Just go and listen to this album. And when the it ends, I’m absolutely sure you will be left gazing into black nothingness, feeling That Pain of the meaningless, “the dormancy of human presence” into this world. Because you know “Your soul is bid to revival among an omnipresent sky.” 9.5/10 Count Vlad

Band

Website

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Patreon

YouTube

Spotify

Label

Website 

Bandcamp

Big Cartel

Facebook

YouTube

Soundcloud

ReverbNation

9.5/10 Epic Storm

**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre.
#supporttheunderground

Altars Of Grief - Iris

Band: Altars Of Grief
Album: Iris
Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records
Release Date: 21 March 2018
Country: Canada
Format reviewed: CD-quality digital

When a music album emboldens such vivid visuals - it unfolds as a cinematographic masterpiece, in the mind of the listener.

And as in a silver screen award contender drama, this album begins it’s timeline in retrospective. Ex post facto we find the protagonist, alone, “in solitude and twisted steel” - a tragic ending in itself, to an escape journey. A casualty on a road to nowhere. Tormented by regrets, yet “finally at peace in frozen isolation“. 

Appropriately defined (by the band) as “Prairie Doom Metal”, the blackened solemn doom of ALTARS OF GRIEF (hailing from Regina in the Saskatchewan province of Canada) unambiguously provides the soundtrack to the landscape of harrowing human emotions, on this conceptual release.

Emptiness. Beseeching in vain about the unalterable tragic faith of the loved one left behind. Relentless lament. Hopelessly, the bitter faith is mutual: “(..) with this departure / I’ll be with you once again” ... Desolation. 

Musically, “Iris” is on absolute par with it’s ravishing lyrical parts, uncloaking intricate layering of grandiosely arranged density. Beautiful, melancholic foundation to sorrowful emotions, disrupted only by intense anguish. A truly memorable production.

Failed faith. Failed Gods. “(..) she appears / Iris, stained with blood”. A parent’s agonizing lament over the grave loss of a child. The desperate helplessness of influencing the innocent’s faith ... “My god! / I’ll see the Heaven’s burn! / I’ll never forgive you for this!” 

Vocally, the songs’ compelling dialogue, alternating between clean, resonating vocals and desperate, agonizing growl, perfectly perorate the conflicting feelings emerging from the lyrics.

Mournful surrender. Lifeless. Cold. One last strife to deities ... “(..) I surrender / My faith unto you / You who has taken / Everything from me”. Impossible resignation: “I know I have failed you / Child of light / Go now, your heaven awaits.” Innocent snow. Unjust damnation. 

The eerily peaceful yet gloomy cover art (by Travis Smith), depicting a young girl kneeling in front of a church in the dead of winter, is a further, flawless illustration to the album’s content. No band logo or album title is present on the front cover.

Late. Too late. A last dirge: “(..) longing for lost days / I’m faced with my failures.” Remorse. Exonerating from personal defeat. “When I close my eyes / I’ll pray for all of this to end.” Fractured, broken hymns of smoldering memories. 

The run-of-the-mill conceptual albums usually focus on mostly banal subjects. The overwhelming psycho-emotional content of “Iris” deals exclusively with conventional attributes encompassing humanity: sickness, loss, addiction, religious beliefs, etc. Raw, unfiltered human tragedy takes center stage on this multi faceted, profound release. 

Tumultuous inner agony: “I am alone / My god, why have you gone?” Desperate attempts to perceive control. Self-blame: “Buried alive / In the graves I have made” Acceptance and apathy: “Voices of winter / Beckon me forward ...”

ALTARS OF GRIEF had always managed to exhibit thru their music the human’s contrasting emotions. Almost as a preview to “Iris” was the 2015 split release (with Nachtterror): “Of Ash And Dying Light”, which set high anticipation. Expectations were indisputably transcended with the release of “Iris”. 

All is lost. No return. Stoic passivity ... “Waiting for the end again.” Peaceful endurance: “I guess this path was truly flawed ...” Becoming intangible: “Judgment comes with revelation / I’ve never felt this close to God ... “ Fade to black. 

Epilogue - responsible for the collective effort of “Iris” are: Damien Smith (vocals), Erik Labossiere (guitars/vocals), Evan Paulson (guitars/vocals/programming), Donny Pinay (bass/vocals) and Zack Bellina (drums/vocals). Raphael Weinroth-Browne wrote and performed all the cello parts present on the album, including track 8. Recorded, mixed & mastered by Justin Bender at Blue Door Recording & Retrosleep Studios, locally in Regina, Saskatchewan. 10/10 By UHF

Band

Bandcamp

Facebook

Site

Youtube

Label

Bandcamp

Facebook

Site

Youtube

10/10 Immortal classic

**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre.
#supporttheunderground

Rites of Thy Degringolade - The Blade Philosophical

Band: Rites of Thy Degringolade
Title: The Blade Philosophical
Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions
Release Date: 15 March 2018
Country: Canada

One of the big returns that are coming to us in this 2018. Probably many of you remember “Rites of Thy Degringolade”, a project of the great Paulus Kressman, who has managed to impress us behind the kit in Warmarch or playing live with Incantation. “Rites…” started as a one-man project in the late 90's, and after several albums of Blackened Death with a high dose of Noise and Avant-Garde textures, in 2005 they released "An Ode to Sin". A masterpiece of brutality, in which the dividing lines between Black, Death or Bestial Black metal became abysmally diffuse. Then, the silence, for almost 13 years, until arriving at the unexpected resurgence, as an apotheosic phoenix. "The Blade Philosophical" immerses us fully in an insane rite, frantic and excellently executed. We are talking about highly trained musicians here. As it happens in the last album of Portal, the production here is extremely polished, although the abrasive and chaotic nature of the music surrounds us in a framework of hyper-complex textures and multiple disharmonic layers of guitars that fluctuate, incessantly, between accents and changes of unexpected rhythms. The Blackened Death factor is very high, of course, but I like to see the proposal as a kind of "Avant-garde Bestial Black Metal" as well. Something that can be appreciated in the moments of full blast beats (the star here is Paulus, obviously, who also takes care of the vocals) which, added to the intrinsic complexity of the compositions, work like a totally insane and lacerating occult machine. It would not be strange to make a parallel between "Rites" and Deathspell Omega, due to a certain aura of occult etaphysics, inherent in the band's new lyrical approach, and its marked percussive characteristic in the most intense moments, although they manage to conjugate a distinct original personality in the process.
“Rites of Thy Degringolade” resurfaces, with a clear purpose: to position themselves, in a very solid way, on the altar of the most original and transcendent modern extreme music, and this album sounds incredibly militaristic, dissonant, overwhelming and ritualistic, in the best sense of the word. Undoubtedly, one of my favorite albums of the year and totally recommended for all lovers of extreme music. 9/10 Sergio

Band
Bandcamp
Facebook

Label
Site
Facebook
Bandcamp
Instagram


9/10 Epic Storm

Dead Soul Alliance (Can) "Slaves To The Apocalypse"

Dead Soul Alliance are from Canada. It began as a project of musician Wolven Deadsoul. And its first release is from 2011. Since then and until now only came out one more release in 2013 and now in 2017 "Slaves To The Apocalypse" which I have the pleasure of listening and doing this review. What do we have here? Death Metal. In the old and good style. If the style should have stayed like this? I wil not go that way and I will not comment. I will simply comment on this very good EP that I have heard many times. Eheheheheh.A good voice has Mr. Wolven Deadsoul, I have to say. Very well done riffs. Some songs a little more "calm" others faster. Some more balanced, some more elaborate. Whatever the music of this release, I can only say that this work is very well done and very good at hearing it. I loved the song "Forged to Forfeit". It reminded me of Death Metal that I listened to when I was younger. Yeah. Very good riffs. Although this release has reminded me of very old songs and bands, I noticed that they were also careful to try to give a slightly more personal touch and not just to "imitate" an old sound. The changes of rhythms and tempos, the riffs used, the way the voice is used, the drums very well played. They bring nothing new to the style but what they bring is quality, and that to me is what really matters. Well ... Now that I'm writing more about this release, I'm remembering about riffs and melodies from the songs of this release. Awww ... I do not know anymore, I can say that I loved the song "Forged to Forfeit" but songs like "Worlds Within Worlds" or "Slaves To The Apocalypse" and "Formula Misanthropia" are excellent, a proof of an excellent Death Metal and its changes of rhythms and tempos. Well ... I just have to mention two more songs to be all here. ahahahahh I will not do it. You will make that decision and you will listen this band. Search and listen. I'm serious. It is worth ... 8.5 / 10 By Me, Myself and I.

Bandcamp
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube