Convocation - Scars Across

Band: Convocation
Title: Scars Across
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Release Date: 30 March 2018
Country: Finland
Format Reviewed: Digital CD quality

We are ready to walk again, wobbly, towards the horizon, with fear crossing our backs and our eyes somewhat fearful, stuck in another mastodontic beast coming from my admired Finland. The earth of metal. From the thickets of these plains comes Convocation, a project of two musicians LL (Lauri Laaksonen) and MN (Marko Neuman), coming from bands like Desolate Shrine and Dark Buddha Rising, among others, to create one of the most impressive albums of Death/Doom so far this year.
These data are not minor to try to describe the sound of this behemoth. Those who know Desolate Shrine will know about the doom and highly atmospheric characteristics that go through their work. Convocation also stands out for crossing landscapes of unparalleled density with an eye always placed in a vortex of experimentation that, far from being diluted in the concatenation of dark matter of its riffs, gives a remarkable aura of etericity to the compositions. Something unique in the universe of Death/Doom.

This alchemy of epic proportions takes us on a journey for just over 50 minutes, divided into four tracks of very slow combustion, full of nuances and a death drive, sometimes close to the cosmogonic Funeral Doom of bands like Esoteric or Evoken. Although talking about comparisons is a somewhat futile exercise in the world of Convocation. This is a beast that breathes its own oxygen and walks with the certainty of knowing itself above the food chain.
The guitars, extremely leaden, are dispatched expertly. The vocals are predominantly deep growls, but what most stands out in Convocation is the use of synthesizers and organs, which overfly the work creating terribly climate-like textures, which grant a dramatic quality that works perfectly with the intentions of the band.

"Scars Across" is an album that begins to show all the heaviest and stylistically closest to the most caustic and monstrous Death Doom, although it is developing a new facet, as it progresses, reaching a level of unique disturbing atmosphere. Convocation gives us a new vision about the world of doom with Death elements, and without doubt, this is an album that we will find in many lists of best albums at the end of the year, included in mine. An incredible album, highly recommended for lovers of slower and heavier music. 10/10 Sergio





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10/10 Immortal classic

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Totalselfhatred - Solitude

Band: Totalselfhatred

Title: Solitude

Label: Osmose Productions

Release Date: 27 April 2018

Country: Finland

Format reviewed: CD quality digital promo

Depressive black metal has always been a strange territory for me. The hybrids usually are not strong enough as the main species, and either they must be really good and well developed, or they are just dropped off from the herd. Furthermore nowadays there is clear and obvious diffusion in the styles, genres and subgenera into tens sub-sub categories which are even hard to describe. Depression had been a field for the most sad and slow death-doom bands 20-25 years ago just when the second wave of black metal has been so popular. So it was either slow, sad and painful, or it’s been…total black. Let’s add funeral doom and post-black wave to all this. Oh well…It really needs to be cooked well!

I’m once more thinking and calculating: summer is definitely NOT the time to drown into this particular style, especially when I’m writing for a depressive black metal band coming from the cold depths of Heslinki! With a band’s name like this and form my experience with their previous release for sure I knew what to expect, but what the heck!  

“Perseverance through adversity, creation through destruction, strength through pain. After years of waiting, skulking and lying near-dormant, Totalselfhatred has returned to the fray. We are here to present you five songs of our own particular brand of melancholic desolation in an audial form. Turn off the lights, wallow in the sweetness of reclusive negativity and let yourself float freely in the soothing stream of emotion that our epitome of Solitude will provide"

This announcement says a lot about the album and the band. “Solitude” comes seven years after bands second release “Apocalypse in your heart” released in 2011. With 5 songs and total running time of 41 minutes, in “Solitude” Totalselfhatred deliver another solid dose of despair and pain giving us just a solid reason to cut our veins. Depression, emotional crush and absolutely no light in the end of the tunnel. So painful and beautiful at once

Musically the album is good. Shoegazing, black gazing, melancholy. With really fantastic (!) slower parts, clean or acoustic guitars passages, keys. However the slower to mid passages suddenly explode into hyper nihilistic crescendo blasts and lethal doses of pain and screaming vocals. Typically for the genre of course. Honestly this was my main problem - these particular parts of the songs and vocals. First of all the blasts - some mistakes in drumming rhythm were noticed, and really the music and the overall atmosphere do loose with that painful screams and harsh vocals. Of course with songs like Solitude, Cold Numbness, Hollow, Black infinity, there can’t be anything else but pure misanthropy and screams for help of hopelessness. 

At the end of the day I’m trying to convince myself about which half of the song parts will prevail in my judgement. The slow and gloomy desperation or the painful cut-knife black crescendos which for me are weathering the veins of this record. I leave it to everybody to find the answer for him self. 6/10 Count Vlad

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6/10 - We may survive

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Crimson Day - At The Mountains Of Madness

Band: Crimson Day 

Title: At The Mountains Of Madness 

Label: Independent 

Release date: February 17, 2018 

Country: Finland 

Format reviewed: FLAC 

The world of rock & metal, and all music in general, has evolved. Some prefer the return of the real metal to the underground. Personally, I don’t have an issue with that. Internet made it possible for acts, new and older, to independently release and promote their releases, perhaps a lot easier than it was during the earlier tape trading era. I am, however, a strong believer that real talent should be recognized and compensated accordingly. Real talent should have access to proper, worldwide physical media distribution outlets, rewarding streaming and downloading services and hassle-free booking to properly compensating gigs. Unfortunately, in this current world of “internet-underground” metal, the real talent is being suffocated by an immensely growing pile of horseshit, an utter waste of data storage petabytes - stuff unfitted to be called music. The ever greed driven record labels and blood sucking streaming services, further obstructs the development of real talent. With that said: the real talent is out there, awaiting to be discovered, savored and praised by fans! 

The latter is clearly the case for CRIMSON DAY. A virtually unknown band, hailing from the city of Tampere in Pirkanmaa, southern Finland. Formed in 2013, the band released their self-titled debut EP the same year. After releasing their first full-length album, “Order Of The Shadows” (2015), the band underwent a couple of lineup changes, resulting in the current formation of: Lassi Landström (vocals), Jesse Liukkonen & Ari Balzar (guitars), Jesse Kämäräinen (bass) and Tuomas Lesonen (drums). “At The Mountains Of Madness”, the band’s sophomore full-length release, independently came to fruition on February 17th. Twelve captivating tracks, showcasing great composition writing skills, captivating lyrics and admirable execution. Conclusively: real talent! The tracks recorded and mixed by Jussi Kulomaa, and mastered by Esa Orjatsalo, sum up to a very memorable listening experience, a virtual realm of Heavy Metal greatness! Some may chose to superficially call this power metal. The hybrid amalgam of melodic, fluid complexity, up-tempo, proficient, sing-along, inspirational framework, with just the right touch of pure Scandinavian ariose speed metal and a hint of neoclassical, it’s what I call: Epic Heavy Metal! Track after track: each time setting a high level of expectation and delivering it without any hesitation! No fillers, no superficiality. From the dramatic piano bars of the intro, “The Expedition of Dr. William Dyer”, and to the fading acoustic guitar notes of the last song on the album, the haunting “Crimson Shore”, this band delivers a multi-layered, fantastic sound voyage. Upper echelon dual guitar landscapes (including very well executed solos), providing apt, textured foundation for the clean, heldentenor like, imposing vocals, all driven with aplomb by the rhythm section’s pinpoint precision and dynamism. Lyrics, as previously mentioned, are top notch, exploring a variety of subjects: literature (fiction), humanity, injustice, mortality, suicide, psychopathy and history (mythology, war, sacrifice, heroism). The album’s cover art in traditional ink pointillism by A.R. Semaster, completes the package. 

CRIMSON DAY has never toured outside their homeland of Finland, with the exception of one show in Berlin, in 2017. Currently seeking a label, producer and booking agent, the band is working on ideas for new material, after wrapping up a winter/spring tour in support of “At The Mountains Of Madness”. Discover something new: buy it, stream it, whatever … - this talented young band deserves all the support it can get! I absolutely recommend this album! 9.5/10 UHF

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9.5/10 Epic Storm

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Kalmah - Palo

Band: Kalmah
Title: Palo
Label: Spinefarm Records
Release Date: 6 April 2018
Country: Finland
Format reviewed: Digital

20 years of its foundation as Kalmah, now the band releases their eighth full-length album. Always craving into the melodic death/power metal, including epicness and folk-from- the- North elements, in order to achieve majestic heroic Finnish spirit, now Kalmah is delivering a strong, vivid and soulful album.

“Palo” comes 5 years after the previous “Seventh Swamphony” and this is the biggest break for the band between the release of the album. Recorded predominantly at Tico Tico studios and mixed also there. The line up of the band hasn’t changed almost through the entire history of the band. With Anti Kokko and his elder brother Pekka Kokko at guitars since the very beginning, Timo Lehtinen (bass) and Janne Kusmin (drums) since 2001 and Veli-Matti Kananen on keyboards since 2012.

“Palo” (“Fire”) delivers a big fire from the Finnish lands and swamps: excellent harmonies in guitar melodies, keyboards, and rhythm. Actually, the best way to describe the album is “balanced” – heavy enough, melodic enough, epic and heroic enough without showing off extra muscles, consisting of just the right nuance of folk feel without being an into the northern folk. All this is presented well by the band in 10 full of life tracks for 46 minutes in total.

“Blood Ran Cold” is a very good opener, instantly drowning in Kamah’s specific style. “Evil kin” somehow reminded me about Amorphis’ Tales from the Thousand Lakes and it’s like take from there. “The World of Rage” is raging and thus melodic, mixing fast and slower part. ‘Into the black Marsh” is intensive contrasting to the deep and melancholic Senteced- queue “Take me away”. “Paystreak” is war hymn, very intense, heroic, powerful, marching and punching tune. Then in the next 3 tracks (“Waiting for the Wings”, “Through the Shallow Waters” and “Erase and Diverge”), we can hear what we have already heard so far in the album in terms of rhythm, melodies. Nothing unexpected to be honest - the tracks are very similar. The final song “The Stalker” is slower but again it is in the same flesh and blood as the rest.

Despite all technicality and musical artistry, all the way I still could hear motifs and patterns which I already know from band’s previous works plus Amorphis, Children of Bodom, Wintersun, Finntroll. That said, “Palo” is enjoyable and captivating, and will be appreciated by all the fans digging into this particular style. Still, some of the songs are lacking of that final touch in order to reach for the heart and make the whole record a real fire. 7/10 Count Vlad


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7/10 – Victory Is Possible


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Galvanizer "Sanguine Vigil"

Band: Galvanizer
Title: Sanguine Vigil
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Release Date: 28 February 2018
Country: Finland

The band started in 2013 as a one-man project but transformed to old school death/grind
project of two men in 2014. As a trio since 2015, Finland’s Galvanizer now come to crush,
tear and rip with ferocity.
If you love the Finnish and Swedish grinding death metal, then Sanguine Vigil is just for you.
Even better if you are a die-hard fan of the genre – this is your present heaven. The album
takes to a journey back in time to the very early 90s, and if the listener doesn’t know it’s a
brand new album, he/she can easily be misled. Sanguine Vigil has everything that the classic
Scandinavian death metal albums had some 27 years ago: the distinctive sound of the guitar
amplifiers, the overall structure of the songs, the typical riffs, the tempo and the vocals. And
on top some pulverizing modern grind moments.
With just 30.46 minutes in total for Enjoyment of annihilation, the lads from Galvanizer
present their Gorefestation in 10 solid punching tracks, leaving nothing but a dark
misanthropic Mood for the blade. The overall feeling of raw hyper-intensive constant
butchery leads to a devastating stinking Premature rot. The album definitely leaves
Unfinished autopsy work for the future which I do look forward, as well as Deathbeat deity
for all the massacre die-hards who miss this album now.
In short, with so many death metal albums around nowadays, Sanguine vigil really is hyper
solid effort for my ears. You have to buy the record, play it loud and your neighbors will
suffer a painful end for their ill curiosity. Grind till…you are dead! 9/10 By Count Vlad


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